Australia forced to wait to host T20 World Cup

MELBOURNE: Australia will host the men’s Twenty20 World Cup in 2022 after the International Cricket Council rescheduled this year’s event in light of the coronavirus.

The decision means India will retain hosting rights to the tournament in 2021, while the women’s World Cup — which was due to be held in New Zealand next year — has been pushed back 12 months.

Nick Hockley, the interim chief executive of Cricket Australia, said the two-year delay would “give us an even better chance of putting on the event that we all originally planned for”. Speaking to reporters, he said: “We hope by 2022 that the world’s back and we’ve got some normalcy.

“The fact that we’ve got another two years to wait, obviously it’s another two years to wait for the fans … but when it comes round it’s going to be fantastic.”

Meanwhile, preparations are continuing for Australia’s tour of England, which is due to take place in the autumn. “The ECB have just done a phenomenal job in terms of being the first to get international cricket up and running in a bio-secure way,” Hockley said.“We are learning and they have been very generous in sharing their plans with us, and we are learning a huge amount from them ahead of the Australian summer.

“We are very committed to the England tour going ahead. There’s a bit more work to be done around travel exemptions and a couple of the finer details but we’re really committed to wanting to make that tour happen.”