T20 World Cup schedule under very high risk – Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts

 

Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts has confirmed that there are high chances the T20 World Cup set to be played in Australia from October 18, will be postponed. Roberts also revealed that even if the tournament goes ahead as planned, Cricket Australia is set to incur heavy monetary losses.

Meanwhile, the final call on the fate of the T20 World Cup was expected to be taken by the ICC on May 28. However, the governing body deferred the decision till June 10 as it wants to explore contingency plans for some time more.

In fact, it was also reported that the IPL could replace the T20 World Cup in October-November. However, the ICC squashed such reports and added that the plans to host the global event is still on as it is scheduled.

“We have been hopeful all along that it could be staged in October-November but you would have to say there’s a very high risk about the prospect of that happening,” Roberts told reporters.

On the other hand, even if the tournament goes ahead as it is planned, Kevin Roberts revealed that there can be losses of around AUD 80 million.

It is well known that the matches will have to be played behind closed doors and thus there would not be any sale of match tickets, which generally makes a revenue of AUD 50 million. Furthermore, making a bio-secure environment could cost around AUD 10 million to CA.

“The likelihood of significant crowds is very slim – ordinarily that would deliver well over AUD 50m revenue to CA.

“The T20 World Cup is a big question and that’s a factor of perhaps AUD 20m”.

“And it’s likely that our bio-security measures that we need to put in place to deliver the season will cost in the order of AUD 10m,” he said.

There are a lot of doubts regarding the hosting of the T20 World Cup. It is not going to be easy for ICC and CA to host the global event as 15 teams will need to travel to Australia.

Subsequently, all the 16 teams will need to travel across the venues, which is going to be difficult from the logistical point of view. Furthermore, other cricket boards will look to play more bilateral series to make up for the monetary losses. Hence, there are good chances that the T20 World Cup will be postponed.

Global events like the Olympics have been deferred and the ICC would be under some pressure to host the T20 World Cup in 2020. All the former and current players are also expecting the World Cup to be postponed.