The ICC Board will meet on June 1 to discuss the proceedings of the Men’s T20I World Cup in India followed up by discussing the backup plans for the same. The big elephant event that is just six months away needs a final call from the ICC whether to take the tournament ahead in India along with a well-structured contingency plan if the tournament has to shift elsewhere.
India is currently facing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intensity of the grip the virus has on the country with leading positive cases and deaths since April has also forced the BCCI to postpone to the VIVO IPL 2021 halfway.
The BCCI has also scheduled a few meetings, one following up on 29th May for addressing the board members and state associations to discuss the further planning on the remainders of the Indian domestic league.
BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly, stated in an interview that if the IPL 2021 is supposedly cancelled then the Board will face a loss of INR 2500 crore (USD 340 million approx).
“We have to speak with other boards and see if a window can be made available before T20I World Cup. If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to INR 2500 crore (USD 340 million approx). That is going by early estimates”, Ganguly on fitting the remainder of the IPL.
However, the ICC is also expecting the BCCI to resolve the longstanding issue of the tax exemption from the Indian government to the global body for hosting events in India. The ICC has to collect a sum total of $20-30 million from the BCCI’s share of the ICC’s central revenue for the long-gone 2016 World T20I event. The ICC has blamed BCCI for not paying the amount as it failed to deal with the government exemptions.
In 2020, the ICC also cautioned the Indian Board to pull off the scheduled T20I World Cup from India in case the BCCI fails to clear the tax issue. However, both bodies have decided to resolve the problem genially and find a solution agreeing to even terms.
