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In a huge boost to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it is now being reported that the postponement of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will not have a direct bearing on India's chances to host the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup in October-November. A fresh media report claims that with the ever-changing situation around COVID-19, a call is expected in the month of July to decide whether the country is in a position to host the T20 World Cup or it needs to be moved out.

Confident that the situation will improve: Board member

"We're monitoring the situation and wait and watch is the best description at this stage. We probably wouldn't go much beyond July as it's a World Cup and they can't be pulled off in a matter of weeks," a board member was quoted as saying in an ANI report.

"We are confident that the situation will improve in the coming days and the World Cup would go ahead in India as planned. We have zeroed in on nine venues and preparations are on and considering that we have quite a few more venues across the country, we can prepare back up venues within the country itself so that we do not burden the health infrastructure for a particular state or another in the eventuality that the situation has not returned to normal by the time of the showpiece event," the board member added.

Nine venues in India shortlisted to host T20 World Cup

In their last meeting on April 16, the BCCI Apex Council had informed nine venues to continue their preparations for the T20 World Cup. These are Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Dharamsala, Hyderabad and Lucknow.