Ehsan Mani: The T20 World Cup 2020 is impossible this year

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Ehsan Mani, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) thinks that the T20 World Cup is going to be canceled this year.

As a result of ICC’s meetings, Mani has concluded that ICC will most likely be moving the mega-event either to 2021 or to 2023.

Discussing the Pakistan tour of England, he commenced that holding a bilateral series in the bio-secure environment will be easy but taking along with the sixteen teams at once would be difficult.

He maintained that if a player goes suffering from the virus, it will create panic and an impact in cricket as no risk can be taken.

Ehsan Mani: The T20 World Cup 2020 is impossible this year

“We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023, so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event,” Mani was quoted as saying by Times Now.

“God forbid if some player(s) falls ill or mishap occurs during the tournament, it will have a big impact and create panic in the cricket world and we can’t take that risk,” he added.

“Having a bio-bubble environment is feasible for say a bilateral series like Pakistan in England, but it is very difficult when 16 teams are involved,” said the PCB chief.

According to the existing schedule, the World Cup is to be staged by 18th October in Australia. Still, there are improbabilities as other countries as suffering the Coronavirus but the official announcement is still to be made.

Also, Pakistan is to kick off its cricket season after a long period of time as amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, the cricketing activities were stopped. Many series and matches got postponed and now its time to resume them.

The cricket will be continued without the spectators behind closed doors to avoid spreading of the Coronavirus. Also, new guidelines will be followed under which game would be commenced such as, saliva ban for polishing the ball.

The two sides are all set to play three Test matches and as many T20Is from July. The team will be departing soon and it is to be noted that the West Indies team already has arrived there.

Moreover, the PCB has revealed that along with the players, the families won’t be allowed this time on tour.

Also, see:

BCCI slams ICC for delaying the decision on the ICC T20 World Cup 2020