Following the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICC announced a revised schedule for its major competitions this past Friday. According to the updated plan, India will move forward with hosting the 2021 T20 World Cup. Additionally, the Men's tournament that was supposed to happen in Australia in 2020 has been rescheduled for 2022.
The International Cricket Council announced the new calendar schedule on Friday for its major tournaments that had been postponed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The T20 World Cup for 2021 will be hosted by India as planned before by the council. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020, which scheduled to take place in Australia this year has now been postponed to 2022.
The ICC has confirmed that the 2021 T20 World Cup will maintain the same rules and structure as the 2020 event, with the original qualifying teams still set to compete. As for the 2022 World Cup, the governing body has decided to hold an entirely new set of qualification matches.
Changes are also affecting the women's circuit, with the New Zealand World Cup being moved from 2021 to early 2022 (February-March). Chief Executive Manu Sawhney highlighted that the global pandemic has effectively wiped out international women's cricket since the end of this year's T20 World Cup, and he cautioned that some teams might continue to struggle with these constraints.
Sawhney elaborated that shifting these events by a year is a strategic move. It ensures that teams have enough time to play a sufficient number of warm-up and preparation matches before qualifiers and the main tournament, thereby preserving the high competitive quality of the sport.