2020 World Cup has been postponed to 2022 in Australia
The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Friday that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020, that was postponed due to COVID-19, will be held in Australia in 2022 while hosts India will go ahead with the 2021 edition as planned. Meanwhile, the Women’s Cricket World Cup, due to take place next year, has been postponed until 2022.
The decisions were taken by the IBC (the commercial subsidiary of the ICC) following an extensive contingency planning exercise which has taken into account the health, cricket and commercial impact of COVID-19 around the world.
ICC Acting Chairman Imran Khwaja said: “Over the last few months as we have considered how we return to staging global events, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in ICC events.
“The decisions the Board have taken today are in the best interests of the sport, our partners and importantly our fans. I’d like to thank our partners at the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket New Zealand as well as the Australian and New Zealand governments for their continued support and commitment to a safe return to ICC events.”
India: 2021 🇮🇳
Australia: 2022 🇦🇺CONFIRMED: The next edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be held in India, while Australia will stage the tournament in 2022! pic.twitter.com/lcFzo4HK7N
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) August 7, 2020
🚨 JUST IN 🚨
The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, originally slated for 2021 in New Zealand, has now been rescheduled for 2022. pic.twitter.com/RMzgVYClyi
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) August 7, 2020
The format of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will remain as it was for 2020 and all teams that qualified for that event will now participate in India in 2021. A new qualification process will be run for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
The format of the postponed ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup will remain as it was for 2021. Five teams have already qualified for the event and that will stand for 2022. The original global qualification event to determine the final three teams to contest the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in July 2020, but this was postponed due to COVID-19. The qualification event will now be held in 2021.
Reactions from the cricket fraternity poured in soon after the announcement:
There’s always a positive to take out of any situation , in this case too , I say more time for planning and preparations . Same vision , same goal #WorldCup2022 https://t.co/Cuq9kbQuA4
— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) August 7, 2020
Feel for the women though that their World Cup has had to be pushed back by a year. We have to ensure that the incredible momentum from the T20 World Cup in March isn’t lost. Look forward to a full women’s IPL in the summer of 2021. Hopefully, Covid will spare us by then.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 7, 2020