Two prominent voices in international cricket administration have expressed reservations about the T20 World Championship being staged in Australia this October. How does this impact the prospects of IPL 2020 being played this year?
An answer to this question is not simple. In fact, it is loaded with intrigue going by how things have transpired, within and outside the ICC, in the past week or so. On the one hand, there are strong indications of the IPL finding a window this year, but on other days, the signal gets blurred.
For instance, in its meeting on 10 June, the ICC deferred an already delayed decision on the T20 WC by a month. This coincided with the Australia government opening up stadia for spectators (to one-fourth capacity), and gave rise to speculation that the T20 WC had got a kiss of life.
However, a few days later Earl Edding, chairman of Cricket Australia said hosting the T20 Wc was “unrealistic’’ despite the low level of infection in the country which has helped in a relatively return towards normalcy.
On the heels of Eddings’s statement, Ehsan Mani, chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board, also spoke up, more or less reiterating Edding’s sentiment. This seemed to suggest that the two were pulling in a different direction from the ICC.
So why is the ICC still sitting on the decision on the T20 WC?
It is no secret that ICC chairman Shashank Manohar does not share a very happy rapport with the BCCI. The parent body’s delay in taking a call on the T20 WC is being attributed to Manohar wanting to keep the Indian cricket establishment dangling in their plans for the IPL.
Manohar’s tenure at the ICC ends in July. Those who follow cricket politics closely say the lawyer-turned-cricket administrator is playing hardball to teach his detractors in the BCCI a lesson. The longer a decision on the T20 WC, the more difficult the chances for the IPL to be played as time is of the essence.
Manohar could justifiably find this surmise demeaning. As head of the parent body, the chairman has to support an ICC event (like the T20 WC) to the maximum. And frankly, there is no certainty of how the COVID-19 pandemic will play out in India in the coming months.
What if the T20 WC is cancelled, which obviously gives the IPL a boost, but the COVID-19 situation in India deteriorates? There would then be neither the World Championship nor the IPL. For the ICC to write off the tournament right now might be imprudent.
The BCCI meanwhile has been touting that it was making all efforts to ensure IPL 2020 is played this year. The calendar has been messed up because of the coronavirus, the league and the T20 WC seem to be looking at the same window this October, and hence the lurking conflict.
The next few weeks, till the ICC takes a decision, are suspense-laden. The best case scenario is that both the T20 WC and the IPL get windows to be staged. That is possible if the pandemic’s impact on India recedes dramatically in the next month or so, making it possible to play the league in September and October.
If this doesn’t happen, the ICC tournament comes under pressure. If fact, the prospects of the IPL being played this year get stronger going by the statements of Edding and Mani. The latter, in fact, has indicated that a T20 WC could be slotted in Australia in 2022 as compensation for foregoing this year’s edition.
There are proponents still in Australia of playing the World Championship this year itself. Sport opening up in the country so early is a major development no doubt. But hosting 16 teams for the WC will pose extraordinary hardships on the organisers, the ICC and Cricket Australia.
Also, the ICC event, unlike the IPL, is heavily dependent on sponsorship and gate receipts, both of which will be considerably below par in this scenario where economic activities have taken a big hit, and where social distancing still has to be strictly practised.
It can’t be ignored too that the BCCI can also play hardball and decline to play the T20 WC on grounds of health safety. That would queer the pitch badly for the ICC and Cricket Australia, as without India, the tournament will be eroded of popular and financial appeal.
It seems unlikely that things will come to this pass though. Cricket Australia and BCCI enjoy cordial relations. Moreover, the Aussies wouldn’t want to imperil the Test series against India to be played from late November to early January Down Under.
The series promises to be a blockbuster, and the lifeline for an embattled and broke Australian cricket administration. That the Pakistan Cricket Board too has no compunctions about the T20 WC being scrapped this year shows the mood in the cricket world currently.
But while cricket politics will undoubtedly play a role in whether T20 WC or IPL gets greater priority, the single biggest influence in how cricket – and everything else – unravels in the second half of this year is how COVID-19 behaves.
The world is still on edge.
The writer is a senior journalist who has been writing on the sport for over 40 years.
