Despite a spike in Covid-19 cases in the country, International Cricket Council’s interim CEO Geoff Allardice on Wednesday said that the international body of cricket is not considering any thoughts to shift the T20 World Cup, which will be hosted by India later this year. However, he also said that the ICC has back up plans for the showpiece event.
Significantly, the tournament is scheduled to be held in October-November in India, which is reporting around a lakh cases daily in the recent times.
“We are certainly proceeding with the event as planned,” Allardice said during a virtual media round-table.
“We have a Plan B in place, but we haven’t activated those plans yet. We are working with the BCCI, we do have backup plans that can be activated if the time comes,” he added.
Allardice, ICC’s general manger – cricket, was recently made the interim CEO after Manu Sawhney was sent on “leave” after his conduct came under the scanner.
Allardice also said the ICC is also in touch with other sports bodies to understand how they are managing in the Covid-19 era.
“Cricket is being played in a number of countries at the moment and we are learning from all of them. We have been talking to others sports bodies about what they are doing, we are in a good shape at the moment but acknowledge that the world is changing at a rapid rate,” he expressed.
“We have also got the World Test Championship final coming up in two months’ time, but we are proceeding with both as planned,” Allardice added.
If reports are to be believed, the UAE, which hosted the IPL last year, could be one of the backup venues for the shortest format’s biggest international event if the situation demands.
During the interaction, he was also asked about the Decision Review System (DRS), to which he said: “DRS was designed to overturn the clear errors. There has been no wholesale changes in it. I think more and more when you see a replay, the natural reaction is what can we do…Overruling a clear error… We have got to a point where we are using technology to get correct decisions but striving for perfection becomes impossible. We are very comfortable with where we are at the moment.”