The BCCI is confident that India will host the T20 World Cup in October as per schedule despite a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country but the marquee ICC event could be held in five cities instead of the originally nine short-listed venues. As per convention, ICC keeps a back-up country ready and it’s been the UAE for the past one year.

The IPL is currently on at different venues in separate bio-secure environments but BCCI will face perhaps its biggest test of managing a big-ticket ICC tournament in adverse circumstances.