Geoff Allardice, ICC interim CEO confirmed that the ICC will have a committee that will decide the fate of any 2021 T20I World cup game that is affected by COVID-19 cases in the team camps making it clear that no member nation can decide upon the same, unlike bilateral contests.
The ICC already has a committee of medical experts in place which also includes BCCI’s Dr. Abhijit Salvi but it is understood that there could be a few positive cases even if there’s a bio-bubble in place.
Geoff Allardice, ICC Acting Chief Executive: ICC Committee To Look If Any Covid-19 Case Arises During 2021 T20I World Cup
The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) committee of medical experts, which includes the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Abhijit Salve, will handle situations involving a Covid-19 scare and not the concerned member nations, acting chief executive Geoff Allardice said on Sunday.
“I think we have been pretty clear in our communication with the members. We have a committee set up to look at any cases that arise during the event,” Allardice said.
“Any decisions around matches will be taken by that committee and it’s not going to be something that’s going to be dealt by the members as it may do in bilateral cricket,” he said.
The committee will decide the fate of any match that may be held in the circumstances. The ICC has already communicated with member nations that there could be a few positive cases even if there is a bio-bubble in place.
Geoff Allardice Will Allow 2 DRS Per Team During T20I World Cup 2021
Geoff Allardice said there will be 2 DRS(ZDecision Review System) per team allowed during the mega event.
“We have continued on with the playing conditions that have been in place for T20 internationals for the past 12 months, which is two reviews per team, so rather than sort of treat this tournament differently, we have just continued on with what’s in place for the last 12 or 18 months,” Allardice said during virtual con-call.
Meanwhile, the ICC interim CEO Geoff Allardice also made clear that the apex cricket body will use neutral umpires wherever the situation allows. In the post-COVID-19 world, ICC has used home umpires due to traveling and logistical issues.
“I think we are able to get all our Elite panel umpires here and the referees here to officiate in this tournament (ICC Men’s T20 World Cup), the UAE is a country that is fairly straight forward now to move in and out of,” Allardice said at the same call.
Geoff Allardice said that various countries have various restrictions in place and that’s making it difficult.
“The issue is in other countries, which have different levels of restrictions, so our position has been, we will be trying to use neutral officials, wherever the circumstances allow. In a number of countries, there are still restrictions that make that difficult, and moving umpires even as individuals is a bit different to the team moments and we found that over the last few months,” he explained.
He also said that the home umpires have done extremely well in the last 18 months.
“I think the umpires, the home country umpires have performed extremely well over the last 18 months and supported by DRS. But the aim is to get neutral officials back once a lot of those restrictions are lifted, so it may happen more after this tournament, but is a very much country by country assessment,” he signed off.
For the first time in an ICC men’s T20I tournament, the Decision Review System (DRS) will be in use as the governing body has announced that the system will be available at the 2021 T20 World Cup starting later this month.
As per the playing conditions released by the ICC this week for the forthcoming T20 World Cup, which begins on October 17 and will be played in the UAE and Oman, each team will get a maximum of two reviews per innings. The governing body had confirmed in June last year an additional unsuccessful DRS review for each team in each innings of a match across all formats,