The International Cricket Council agreed to postpone this year’s T20 World Cup that was scheduled to be held in October-November in Australia to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The venue, however, for the World Cup has not been announced, and it is likely that the ICC will take into account the pandemic situation in both India (originally scheduled to host the T20 World Cup in 2021) and Australia before confirming the new dates and the location.
The ICC also postponed the 2023 World Cup in India by a few months to allow time for teams to qualify. The 50-over World Cup will be held from October to November 2023, with the final on November 26 2023.
The international body, however, did not comment on the Women’s 50-over World Cup that is scheduled to be held in New Zealand next year in February, and as such, the planning for the event will continue.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport.
“The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.
“Our Members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket. Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process. This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play.
The windows for the Men’s events are:
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October – November 2021 with the final on 14 November 2021
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October – November 2022 with the final on 13 November 2022
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October – November 2023 with the final on 26 November 2023