Reports: BCCI considered hosting T20 World Cup across three cities in India, final at Narendra Modi Stadium

Many upcoming cricket series and tournaments scheduled in India are under jeopardy all thanks to the COVID-19 virus. The pandemic has already forced the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to suspend the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 midway. India even had the hosting rights of the high-voltage ICC T20 World Cup 2021 but the T20 extravaganza has also now been shifted to the Arab nation.

On Monday (June 28), BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed that, just like IPL, the board has decided shift the T20 World Cup to UAE. However, before taking a final call on the marquee event, the cricket board made every possible effort to retain the hosting rights. As per the latest developments, the Indian cricket board brainstormed over various options including limiting the mega event to just three cities in the country.

The report suggests that BCCI mulled conducting the matches in Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmedabad with the Narendra Modi Stadium also playing hosts to the final. “Pakistan playing in Mumbai or Pune would have always been an issue. So there were multiple factors,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying by News18.

“In IPL, multiple players got infected by COVID-19, you can have good replacements. But what about the weaker teams? What if they lose five or six top players? They won’t have ready replacements,” the source reasoned further.

IPL, T20 World Cup taking place in UAE

With BCCI already shifting the IPL to UAE, it was all but certain that India is not in a position to host the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to get underway in October. Speaking of the same, an ICC official said that the occurring of the gala competition in India doesn’t seem realistic by any means.

“If the BCCI is unable to host an eight-team IPL in September, how could it have hosted World T20 within a month? Also now we have a new variant (Delta 3) and there is every possibility of a third wave in the country in October. The BCCI brass was always well aware that it won’t be practically feasible,” News18 quoted an ICC board member as per saying.

Not to forget, travelling to India wouldn’t have been smooth for many foreign players with several nations making the sub-continent nation on the ‘Red List’ due to the coronavirus situation.