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(REUTERS): The Twenty20 World Cup 2021 will be shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in India, an Indian cricket board official told an international news agency today (Monday).
“We have told the International Cricket Council (ICC) about the decision to shift the World Cup to UAE. We were left with no option as the COVID-19 situation is not clear and the travel restrictions remain,” the BCCI’s treasurer, Arun Dhumal, said.
He further said, “The dates will more or less be the same and we will work out the details soon.” The ICC had given the BCCI a deadline of the end of June to decide the host country for T20’s showpiece event due to the high number of COVID-19 cases in India.
BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said the qualifiers may take place in Oman while the rest of the matches will be at three UAE venues in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The Indian Board had already moved the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) to the UAE in September-October after the T20 tournament was halted on May 4.
The pandemic disrupted the global cricket calendar last year and even after the matches resumed in July 2020, players have been confined to strict bio-bubbles and quarantine protocols.
India reported on Monday 46,148 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed. The South Asian country’s total Covid-19 case load now stands at 30.27 million, while total fatalities are at 396,730, the data showed.
