BCCI line up nine venues for Men's T20 World Cup; await ICC's approval

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have proposed nine venues to host the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup in India. According to ESPNCricinfo, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai are the nine venues listed after BCCI’s Apex Council’s virtual meeting last weekend. The proposed venues are forwarded to the International Cricket Council (ICC) which will take the final decision considering the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, currently going through its second wave. 

The 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup is a 16-team tournament, earmarked to unfold in October, with the final currently scheduled for November 13, in Ahmedabad. 

The biggest challenge for ICC lies in tackling the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in India. India have reported 2,59,170 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day surge, taking the country's COVID-19 caseload past the 1.5 crore mark. An ICC team is expected to travel to India on April 26 to do a survey of the proposed venues. 

As stated by ESPNCricinfo, the ICC are monitoring the proceedings of the ongoing IPL 2021. The ICC have also discussed different possibilities with the BCCI which can see a trimmed number of venues from the proposed list hosting the tournament. In case India is deemed unfit, there lies back-up options in Sri Lanka and the UAE.

The BCCI is confident of the pandemic situation improving. With six months still left for the tournament, they are expecting most of the adults to get vaccinated. Next month onwards, all adults over 18 are open to apply for vaccination.