'We can’t take that risk' - PCB chief Ehsan Mani believes T20 World Cup won't be possible this year

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ehsan Mani has given his opinion of the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup 2020. The tournament is scheduled to be staged in Australia later this year. However, according to Mani, he doesn’t expect that the tournament will be held this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ICC has suspended all forms of international cricket for some time, given the situation of the global pandemic.

It should be noted that the comments from Mani come just after Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Earl Eddings termed the idea of hosting the tournament as ‘unrealistic’. According to the viewpoint of Eddings, it will be not possible for Australia to host a tournament of this scale in which 16 international teams are participating.

We have had a lot of discussions: Ehsan Mani

Ehsan Mani has feared that staging the tournament in 2020 could be a risk for ICC. “We have had a lot of discussions and the feeling is it (T20 World Cup) would not be possible this year. ICC has World Cups lined up in 2021 and 2023, so we have a gap year where we can adjust this event,” Mani was quoted as saying by Times Now.

“God forbid if some player(s) falls ill or mishap occurs during the tournament, it will have a big impact and create panic in the cricket world and we can’t take that risk,” he added.

Interestingly, Pakistan is due to tour England in August for three Tests and three T20Is. Mani pointed out that creating a bio-secure bubble for two teams for a bilateral is easy but it won’t be feasible to replicate on a large scale to host matches for 16 teams.

“Having a bio-bubble environment is feasible for say a bilateral series like Pakistan in England, but it is very difficult when 16 teams are involved,” said the PCB chief.

The number of cases of COVID-19 infections is quite less in Australia though. At this moment, there are around only 400 active cases. There have been rumours that the T20 World Cup might be postponed to 2022, but the ICC has not yet revealed anything concrete. If the tournament is postponed, there are chances IPL 2020 would be played in October and November.