The United States of America (USA), which was scheduled to host the T20 World Cup 2024 with West Indies have been stripped of its rights of doing so, as per News18 Cricket.
An ICC release back in April 2022 confirmed the USA and West Indies’ direct qualification for the 2024 T20 World Cup as joint hosts. It was a historic moment for the USA which is still trying to establish a cricket culture in its sporting ecosystem despite being the first country to be accorded the status of an associate member of the ICC decades ago.
However, since then, a lot has happened in USA cricket as no one knows who is running the daily affairs at the USA cricket.
ICC Confirms That West Indies Are Now The “Only” Hosts For The 2024 T20 World Cup:- Report
Meanwhile, News18 CricketNext sent ICC an email asking if the USA is still the host. For the longest time now, either the ICC has banned the US cricket federation in the past or has been helpless in allowing another elected body to sustain it. The ICC continues to run its affairs in the US by directly coordinating with its own employees/consultants based out of the country.
Sources in the ICC said: “Martin Snedden, Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Skerritt were part of a Board sub-committee charged with reviewing all 28 proposals that were submitted with ICC management before making a recommendation to the Board. As part of the process, the ICC wanted to take World Cups to new territories and well-established markets in order to help deliver on the overarching strategic aim of growing the game. All bids provided extensive detail as part of the process”.
However, the sources also confirmed that the West Indies were now the only hosts of the ICC T20 World Cup in 2024.
“For jointly hosted World Cups we often contract with the Full Member (FM) as the host who is fully responsible for the delivery of the Event. The FM would then have a staging agreement with the relevant Members to ensure the successful staging of World Cup matches in other countries. In this case, Cricket West Indies have been contracted as World Cup hosts,” ICC sources informed.
“What I can’t understand is, why is the ICC so bent on “developing” a sport in a country that is the leading first-world nation on the planet and can afford to fend for itself? On top of that, the US neither has an elected body in place nor does it have a decent First Class culture. So what’s the hurry to take the World Cup there? Why can’t the ICC put that much emphasis on developing cricket in Nepal or any of the African nations that truly follow and play the sport? One must ask the ICC to explain their “love” for America,” say sources as per News18.
Ricky Skerritt who had made efforts to make USA the co-host of the 2024 T20 World Cup will be replaced in the ICC nominations committee by Oman’s Pankaj Khimji.