T20 WC postponed; All clear for IPL

The deck has been cleared for the Indian Premier league (IPL) to be held this year, as the International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed of the T20 World Cup 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at its board meeting via video-conferencing on Monday.

India have the hosting rights for the tournament in 2021. The ICC has confirmed that a T20 World Cup will be held in 2022, a year before the Cricket World Cup in India in 2023.

Six editions of the T20 World Cup have been played so far with the last one being held in India in 2016 in which West Indies were crowned champions.

"At today's meeting of the IBC Board (the commercial subsidiary of the ICC), windows for the next three ICC men's events were also agreed to bring clarity to the calendar and give the sport the best possible opportunity over the next three years to recover from the disruption caused by Covid-19," the ICC statement read.

The ICC hasn't yet decided whether India and Australia will swap the 2021 and 2022 editions between them, both of which will be held in the October-November window.

"The International Cricket Council (ICC) today confirmed the ICC men's T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," ICC said in a statement.

Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: "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."

As far as hosting of this edition is concerned, ICC's commercial wing will be monitoring various modalities before coming to a decision on whether India will host the 2021 edition or swap with Cricket Australia and host theirs in 2022.

The decision to announce the schedules of the next three World Cups will help the boards plan more bilateral engagements and earn revenue lost during the pandemic.

There has been no formal announcement but there is a possibility that BCCI might shift the Indian Premier League to the United Arab Emirates taking India's COVID-19 case load into account. India has recorded over 11 lakh cases so far with the death toll breaching the 27,000 mark.