Hyderabad: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of this year's Men's T20 World Cup in Australia due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The T20 World Cup was earlier slated to be played in Australia from October 18 to November 15 this year.
"The International Cricket Council (ICC) today confirmed the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," the ICC said in a statement.
This, in turn, opens up the door for the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the window set for the T20 World Cup from October 18 to November 15 can now be utilised by the BCCI wherein they can host their marquee T20 tournament between September 26 and November 7 for it.
Originally IPL 2020 was scheduled to commence from March 29 but due to the prevailing the lockdown, BCCI had to postpone their tournament for an indefinite period. However, they didn’t lose their hope of hosting the tournament as Sourav Ganguly admitted that it will incur them a loss of Rs 4000 crore.
As per reports, IPL can be held in UAE and BCCI have earmarked a tentative window between September 26 and November 7 for it.
Meanwhile, the detailed schedule for IPL 2020 is likely to come out in the first week of August. The Indian cricketers who will feature in the IPL will move to UAE for a five-week training camp from the third week of August to the first week of September.
Once the training camp is over, the IPL franchises will be free to organise training camps of their own ahead of the tournament opener. This will be the second time after 2014, UAE will be hosting the IPL 2020. The matches will take place in three stadiums in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi under bio-secure environments due to COVID-19.
