Australia want men’s T20 World Cup delayed to 2021
Cricket Australia want the Twenty20 World Cup postponed as it braces for a $80-million hit to its summer coffers.
CA chairman Earl Eddings has written to the International Cricket Council, saying Australia won’t be in a position to host the T20 showpiece this October and November as scheduled. Eddings, in an email, asked the ICC that Australia be given rights to host the tournament next year, according to a report in the Times of India.
The report comes as CA’s chief executive Kevin Roberts suggested the cup could be held next February and March, or in October and November next year.
Roberts says there is a ‘‘very high risk’’ of the cup being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
CA stands to lose $20m from not hosting the cup as per schedule.
Roberts says CA will also suffer a further $50m blow from the likelihood of not having crowds attend international games in Australia this summer. In addition, CA will spend around $10m on biosecurity measures to ensure international teams can play in Australia. ‘‘The likelihood of significant crowds is very slim — ordinarily, that would deliver well over $50m revenue to CA,’’ Roberts told reporters yesterday.
‘‘The T20 World Cup is a big question and that’s a factor of perhaps $20m . . . we have been hopeful all along that it could be staged in October-November but you would have to say there’s a very high risk about the prospect of that happening. And it’s likely that our biosecurity measures that we need to put in place to deliver the season will cost in the order of $10m.’’
While the T20 World Cup could be rescheduled to next year, CA has released its summer schedule highlighted by four tests against India set to deliver some $300m in broadcast rights.
The schedule has India playing at four venues — the Gabba, Adelaide Oval, the SCG and MCG — but that could yet change.
‘‘That [schedule] assumes that state borders are open to domestic travel,’’ Roberts said. ‘‘It may be that circumstances dictate that when the time comes maybe we can only use one or two venues, we really don’t know any of that yet.
‘‘There is a lot of variables based on whether we have four venues in four states or as little as one venue in one state. There’s endless scenarios and possibilities . . . we’re very optimistic that we will be able to stage the Indian men’s tour and the other inbound tours for the season.