The ICC T20 World Cup 2021 is set to take place in India later this year. The BCCI has decided to host the gigantic tournament comprising 16 international teams at nine venues in India. Amid the rising coronavirus cases in India, it would be a huge challenge for the board to successfully host the tournament.
The 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup, set to take place in October-November later this year, will take place at nine venues, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Dharamsala, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow. The final of the marquee tournament will take place at the world’s largest cricket stadium, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The humongous stadium can accommodate more than 1 lakh fans inside the stadium.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India had plans of keeping the number of venues to six to minimise the risk of COVID-19. Still, after several state units expressed their desire to host the tournament, the board approached the ICC regarding the same. In the 2016 edition of the mega event, India had used only seven venues. Mohali and Nagpur have been excluded this time while adding Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow.
The tournament taking place at nine venues means that teams would have to travel more frequently, involving bio-security bubbles. The ICC implied that hosting the World Cup at lesser venues is much easier on the pocket, New Indian Express quoted in a report.
It has also been learned that the BCCI would give the ICC a ‘Plan B’ if the situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t improve in India. It means that the number of venues for hosting the World Cup games would most probably be reduced. BCCI could use only four venues to host the entire tournament, keeping the safety of the players in mind.
The BCCI and ICC have a monumental task at hand with as many as 16 participating teams for the T20 World Cup. In the meantime, the Indian government has decided to give Pakistan cricketers visas for the mega event. Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, informed the same to the Apex Council, making it clear that Pakistan’s involvement in the upcoming World Cup won’t be in question.
Shedding light on the issue, an Apex Council member said that Pakistan’s visa issue had been sorted. However, whether the fans can travel across the border to watch matches is still not clear. The statement has made the path of T20 World Cup participation a lot easier and smooth for the Babar Azam led Pakistan team, which has recently been in tremendous form in T20 International cricket. Pakistan defeated South Africa in a pretty one-sided T20 series which ended recently.
The series came under the scanner and attracted a lot of backlash from Pakistani fans and cricket experts. They were seemingly unhappy that Cricket South Africa allowed ace Proteas players to leave the series midway to participate in the biggest T20 tournament of the world, the Indian Premier League. A number of South African players are part of the ongoing edition of the IPL who joined their respective franchises after providing a COVID-19 negative test report and spending the mandated amount of time in quarantine.
Earlier, Ehsan Mani, the Pakistan Cricket Board chief, said that the board had asked for a written assurance from the ICC that India will grant their players visas. India and Pakistan haven’t played in a bilateral series since 2012-13 and only play in tournaments organised by the ICC and ACC.
Now with the visa issue resolved, the arch-rivals would most probably be up against each other in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Given the history of India-Pakistan clashes and the recent political tensions between the two nations, the clash will attract worldwide attention.
