Highlights:
- ICC Men’s T20I World Cup scheduled in Australia between 18th October and 15th November
- Due to ongoing pandemic, clouds surround the tournament of being postponed
- New Zealand Cricket CEO talks to press on conference
David White, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the New Zealand Cricket said that as of now the decision on a possible postponement of the ICC Men’s T20I World Cup due to the ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus will be taken only after June. The pandemic has put a questionmark on various sporting events all across the globe and Cricket has been no exception. The T20I World Cup which is scheduled to be played in Australia between October 18th and November 15th is being surrounded by thick clouds of potential postponement.
Talking with the reporters via conference call, White said, “There’s contingency planning going on and lots of discussions but no decisions will be made… if decisions are made… it will be in July,”.
Chief Executive Committee of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is scheduled to hold a meeting later today to discuss the financial implications of the novel Coronavirus and also talk about the contingency planning for all the ICC events, including T20I World Cup. The meeting will be conducted over a conference call.
White said, “People will be sharing their experiences of the current situation within the countries. The World Cups will be discussed, I’m sure, but no decisions will be made,”.
“Cricket Australia is working very closely with the government authorities and they are planning to go ahead in October and November.”
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When asked about the fate of ICC Women’s World Cup 2021 which New Zealand will host in February, White said, “Postponement has certainly not been discussed at all. Women’s World Cup is very important for New Zealand but the postponement has not been even on the agenda.”
White said that New Zealand is open to a series against Australian.
“We are in a unique situation, we’ve all got to be open minded about planning going forward, it’s only April. We’ve got to work together, we’ve got to be flexible…so we can accommodate these events.”
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White also confirmed that the tour of Netherlands for the New Zealand team has also been called off and the upcoming tours to the UK and the West Indies in June and July respectively remain “highly doubtful”.
He also said that if the virus is not controlled, even the proposed tours of Scotland and Ireland later in the year will be adversely affected by the pandemic.
He said, “We were scheduled to play the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland and then going to the West Indies but gotta say, it’s highly, highly doubtful that we’re going to play these games,”.
He added, “I got an email overnight with Netherland govt basically saying it is not possible. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll play any of those games and even the West Indies games are significantly in doubt,”.
