It’s official, no T20 World Cup in India; UAE the new venue

The T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India is being shifted to the United Arab Emirates owing to the health safety concerns posed by Covid19 BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said on Monday ending weeks of speculation surrounding the mega event in OctoberNovemberldquoWe have officially intimated the ICC that the T20 World Cup can be shifted to the UAE The details are being chalked outrdquo Ganguly saidldquoThe decision was taken keeping health safety concerns of all stakeholders in mindrdquo he added The BCCI will however remain the hosts of the showpieceDates yet to be confirmedAsked if October 17 has been finalised as the start date of the tournament Ganguly said ldquoWe will be able to finalise itinerary details in some days October 17 start hasnrsquot yet been finalisedrdquoSourav Ganguly PicSuresh KarkeraEven an ICC spokesperson confirmed that the global body is yet to zero in on a final schedule The ICC at the start of the month had given BCCI a fourweek window to decide and inform whether India could host the marquee event considering the COVID19 situation in the countryBCCI secretary Jay Shah in a letter to all state units said that the decision was taken keeping in mind that ldquosafety of players and other stakeholders is of paramount importancerdquolsquoNot an easy decisionrsquoShah also wrote that ldquoit was not an easy decision and we mulled over it for months constantly keeping an eye on COVID situation all alongrdquo ldquoHowever with the second wave causing such devastation the decision ultimately boiled down to the safety and well being of the players and organisersrdquo he admittedldquoThere is nothing more that we could have wanted than to host this prestigious tournament in India but it was not to berdquo It was a foregone conclusion that India will find it difficult to host a 16country tournament across nine cities with so many layers of health security concerns being thereIn fact the ICC had already started its preparations and logistics for the tournament which will be held in Dubai Sharjah and Abu DhabiThe qualifying round could be held in Muscat which will give ideal time to the pitches in UAE to freshen up after 31 remaining games of IPL are held till October 15Once the IPL was shifted to the UAE it was apparent that the T20 World Cup will move too given the looming concerns about a possible third wave of Covid19 infection around that timeIndia was ravaged by the second wave in AprilMay with scarcity of essential medical supplies adding to the horror that unfolded with over four lakh daily cases at the peak of the crisisAlso ReadRahul Dravid on Sri Lanka tour Opportunity for me to learn and improveThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever