Cricket Australia has 'no issues' with India hosting 2021 T20 World Cup

Tags: India, Australia, 2021 T20 World Cup

Published on: Aug 09, 2020

After all the confusion over who will host the upcoming T20 World Cups in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic throwing things out of gear, the updated schedule has finally been announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The ICC confirmed, on Friday, that India will remain hosts of the 2021 T20 World Cup. On the other hand, Australia who were supposed to host this year's event, have now been given the rights to host the 2022 edition.

Further, the sport's governing body has also confirmed that the women's 50-over World Cup that was scheduled to take place in New Zealand in February-March next year has been postponed to 2022.

"The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2020 that was postponed due to COVID-19 will be held in Australia in 2022. India will host the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 as planned," the ICC confirmed in a statement.

"The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand has been postponed until February-March 2022 because of the impact the pandemic has had on cricket globally," the statement added.

This year's Men's T20 World Cup was scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November. However, the tournament was postponed over to the massive spread of Coronavirus. The World Cup postponement led to the creation of the window for hosting of IPL 2020 in the United Arab Emirates.

Following the decision, New Zealand said that it could have hosted the Women's World Cup but backed ICC's decision. Cricket Australia too denied that they were annoyed at having to host the 2022 World T20 edition instead of next year's.

"This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world," New Zealand Sports Minister Grant Robertson said in a statement.

"The organising committee in New Zealand has been working with the government to ensure a safe and enjoyable tournament could be played. We could have done it in 2021, but now we will look to 2022. As a government we have reiterated our commitment to supporting the tournament," the statement added.

Cricket Australia interim Chief Executive Nick Hockley added that they were willing to host either the 2021 or 2022 edition. "No, not at all annoyed," Hockley told reporters. "We are very respectful," he added.

"Postponing it to 2022 in Australia gives us a better chance of putting on the event that we all originally planned for and were hoping for. We hope by 2022 that the world is back and we have got some normalcy," he further stated.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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