Rajeev Shukla, BCCI vice-president has said that the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus situation in India forced the cricket board to shift the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the board has officially informed ICC that the marquee event can be shifted to UAE.
Rajeev Shukla: It Has Been Decided BCCI Will Inform The ICC To Move T20I World Cup To The UAE Due To Prevailing Covid-19 Situation In India
However, the BCCI will remain the host of the event.
“As far as T20 World Cup is concerned, today (June 28) was the deadline as we had to inform the ICC about our decision so today there was a conference call between BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, Secretary Jay Shah, Treasurer Arun Dhumal, me and the Joint Secretary,” Shukla told news agency ANI on Monday.
He continued, “We looked at the COVID-19 situation and nobody is sure what is going to happen after two-three months, looking at everything, it has been decided that Secretary Jay Shah and President Ganguly will inform the ICC to move the tournament to the UAE.”
Rajeev Shukla also termed UAE as the ideal venue after India to host the marquee event and said considering the scale of the T20 World Cup, BCCI took the decision.
“UAE is an ideal venue after India. We all wanted to host it in India, but you know it is an international tournament and that too of big size, so it was very hard to predict what is going to happen with the COVID situation, after due consideration, now the BCCI has decided to move the T20 World Cup to the UAE,”Rajeev Shukla said.
The T20 World Cup scheduled to happen in India will be shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the health and safety concerns posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly.
The T20 cricket event is to be held in October-November. This development came after the pandemic forced the postponement of IPL, the second part of which will be also held in the UAE in September-October. BCCI was also mulling if Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Pune could host a three-city event with the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium. But there were several complications on that front, too.
Rajeev Shukla: Dates For The T20I World Cup 2021 Will Remain Unchanged
Rajeev Shukla also said that the dates for the event remain unchanged and will start from October 17, two days after the IPL 2021 final. He added that Oman and Muscat could play host to the qualifying matches.
“The dates are going to be the same, immediately after the IPL, the tournament will start. The format for the World Cup has already been decided by the ICC, qualifiers may take place in Oman and Muscat. The rest of the matches will be in the three grounds — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah,” he said.
The ICC T20I World Cup will be played in three stadiums of the UAE — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah — and Oman’s Muscat. It said that each group will have matches in the UAE and Oman. Round 1 will include 12 matches that will be played between eight teams. Out of these, four teams would qualify for the super 12s.
In the super 12s, four teams from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, and Papua New Guinea will join the others. In super 12s, 30 games will be held. Following the conclusion of the super 12s, four teams will move to the semi-finals. The dates of the finals and the semi-finals have not been decided yet,