New Delhi: ICC’s interim CEO Geoff Allardice on Wednesday said the body has backup plans in place for the T20 World Cup in India later this year but is currently not entertaining any thoughts of moving it out of the country despite a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The tournament is scheduled to be held in October-November in India, which is reporting over one lakh daily cases for the past few days. Amid the Covid-19 surge, the IPL is due to start on Friday in Chennai behind closed doors.
“We are certainly proceeding on the assumption that the event is going ahead as planned,” Allardice said during a virtual media round-table.
“Plan B we have, but we haven’t activated those plans yet. We are working with the BCCI, we do have backup plans that can be activated if the time comes.
“We’re not oblivious to what is going on around the world and we continue to take updates on all aspects of how sporting events are being run and the situation in each country.
“Cricket is being played in a number of countries around the world, we’re taking lessons from all of those and proceeding as planned.
“We do have back-up plans that can be activated when the time is right. We’re not anywhere near that timeline yet. We’ve got a number of months to be able to see how the situation is and how cricket events are being run.”
The 53-year-old Australian said the ICC is also in touch with other sports bodies to understand how they are managing in the Covid era.
“Cricket is being played in a number of countries at the moment and we are learning from all of them.
“We have also got the World Test Championship final coming up in two months’ time, but we are proceeding with both as planned,” he said.
The UAE, which hosted the IPL last year, could be one of the backup venues for the shortest format’s biggest international event should the situation demand a shift.
Allardice said there was “a good discussion” on DRS during the recent ICC Board Meeting.
“DRS was designed to overturn the clear errors. There has been no wholesale changes in it.
“I think more and more when you see a replay, the natural reaction is what can we do…Overruling a clear error… We have got to a point where we are using technology to get correct decisions but striving for perfection becomes impossible.
“We are very comfortable with where we are at the moment,” he said.
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