Former Cricketers voice their opinion on the T20 World Cup

While the decision whether or not to conduct the T20 World Cup in Australia hasn’t been made yet, the International Cricket Council had postponed the board meeting from 28 May to 10 June. 

Many legends of the game have come out stating that conducting the World Cup would be difficult given the situation the world is in now. With the Australian Government imposing a six-month lockdown, which would be in effect until late September, it would be difficult to organize the T20 World Cup there.

Former Indian international Irfan Pathan said during a chat show on 'Sports Tak': "Ideally, I would want to see the T20 World Cup. (But) it would be difficult for all teams to come to Australia and be in quarantine with all the rules... in Australia, the law is followed very strictly and I have seen that." 

"So I think public safety will be the priority and therefore I think it is very difficult to host the T20 World Cup there," added Irfan Pathan.

In an interview with The News, Pakistani legend Wasim Akram said: “Personally, I don't think it's a good idea. I mean, how could you have a cricket World Cup without spectators." 

"A World Cup is all about big crowds, spectators coming from all parts of the globe to support their teams. It's all about atmosphere and you cannot get it behind closed doors. So I believe that they (ICC) should wait for a more suitable time and once this pandemic subsides and restrictions are eased then we can have a proper World Cup," he added. 

Former Australian captain, Dean Jones who appeared on Sportscreen’s YouTube channel for podcast/ chat said: “T20 World Cup isn’t going to happen in Australia this year for a lot of reasons. Firstly, Cricket Australia has retrenched a lot of people. So, when you have 16 teams here, and 30-40 people per team including staff, players, and administrators, you won’t be able to do it.”

Professor Deano further explained, “Especially with the cover restrictions being very stringent here in Australia. And the host country also doesn’t make much money by hosting a World Cup. They used to, but not now under the rules. So, where do they (Cricket Australia) make their money now?”