Picture Credit: Twitter/@ICC
With the ongoing season of Indian Premier League currently happening quite smoothly, ICC are keeping a key eye on the operations. With a T20 World Cup set to be scheduled in India later this year, a team of the governing council will be visiting the country on April 26 to discuss, inspect and plan the arrangements for the mega event amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
IPL's cluster-venue format could be used for T20 World Cup
ICC's bio-safety head Dr. Dave Musker spoke about the preparations for T20 World Cup and hinted that the twin-city 'Cluster Caravan' format of IPL 2021 could be used for the mega event as well. Notably, BCCI have made a plan in which only two venues will be used at a point of time during the tournament. Presently, the matches are being played only in Mumbai and Chennai.
Reflecting on the same, Dr. Musker said, "I'm fascinated to see how the IPL works in India over the coming weeks... We will be travelling to India on April 26 to see the arrangements there and are in touch with the BCCI on this. It is on top of our list of priorities. Some of our teams have already travelled to Delhi in the past and gathered significant learnings from there."
ICC will come up with final plan post IPL
Dr. Musker also added that although they have a robust plan in place, it would be foolish for them to make any prognostications yet. He said, "I don't think we'll be in position to really tie down what we are going to do in the autumn until we see how the IPL goes." He added that they are observing the series of events in IPL 2021 and will wait to see what happens in India in April and May.
Notably, ICC has finalised nine venues for the T20 World Cup which will take place in October-November. The 16-team tournament will take place in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Dharamsala. It would be really interesting to see if the two-venue template being used in IPL will be followed for the global event as well or if ICC come up with a whole different layout.