Current T20 World Cup Schedule Under ‘Very High Risk’, Next Window in Feb-Mar: Kevin Roberts

Melbourne: Cricket Australia boss Kevin Roberts has downplayed the prospect of the Twenty20 World Cup going ahead in 2020, saying the October-November schedule was under “very high risk” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Obviously, we’ve been hopeful all along that it could be staged in October-November but you would have to say there is a very high risk about the prospect of that happening,” Roberts told reporters in a video call on Friday.

“In the event that that doesn’t happen, there are potential windows in the February-March period, October-November the following year.

“And there’s implications here for the ICC over a number of years. So there’s a lot of complexity for the ICC to deal with.”

The sport’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council, has the final say over whether the Oct. 18-Nov. 15 event will go ahead.

On Thursday, the ICC deferred decisions over the tournament until its next board meeting on June 10.

Earlier, Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings has requested the ICC’s Financial and Commercial Affairs Committee to consider allowing them to host the 2021 T20 World Cup instead of 2020, according to a report in the Times of India.

Cricket Australia, who cited financial reasons behind their request, has specifically asked to host the 2021 T20 World Cup and not 2022.

Eddings wrote “.. it would be detrimental for cricket if the cancellation of the “Australian event” (T20 World Cup) is replaced by award of the subsequent T20 World Cup in October/November 2022″.

“Australia has thankfully managed to ‘flatten the (Covid) curve’, meaning there is greater certainty of being able to play in Australia in 2021 (which is key to maintaining member distributions). This would give India another year to resolve any Covid-related problems,” he wrote.