ICC postpones the 2023 World Cup in India by 6 months

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to postpone the 2023 edition ICC Cricket World Cup by more than 6 months to host it in the month of October-November instead of February-March. This decision has been taken to maintain the integrity of the qualification process and allow ICC some time to conduct the games that had to be rescheduled due to the abrupt halt in the cricketing activities owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The World Cup Super League is an initiative started by ICC earlier this year to promote bilateral 50-over games between cricketing nations. It is a two-year long competition that will help in deciding the nations that will take part in the mega event 2023. Each of the 13 teams will play 8 bilateral series over a 2-year period but the pandemic has disrupted the schedule.

India, who are the hosts in 2023, and the other top seven teams will qualify automatically for the ICC event. The bottom 5 will play the qualifiers in 2020 along with top 3 teams from Cricket World Cup League 2 and top 2 teams from Cricket World Cup Challenge League will play the qualifiers in 2022.

Manu Sawhney opines on the decision to postpone the 2023 World Cup

“ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 moved to October November 2023 to allow a longer qualification period,” the ICC said in a release. ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said the additional time of 6 months due to delay in 2023 World Cup will allow ICC to conduct all the scheduled matches so that all the nations get an equal chance of qualifying for the marquee event.

“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,” Sawhney said as quoted by India Today.

Meanwhile, the ICC is also looking forward to evaluating the hosting scenarios for the Women’s World Cup in 2021, scheduled from February 6 to March 7 in New Zealand.

“The IBC Board will also continue to evaluate the situation in relation to being able to stage the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand in February next year. In the meantime, planning for this event continues as scheduled,” the ICC statement read.