There’s less than six months before the start of the T20 World Cup, which is due to be staged in India.
According to the unofficial schedule, Sri Lanka would kick off proceedings against Ireland on the 18th of October, with the final being played on the 15th of November.
This plan was agreed on last year at a time where the COVID pandemic had caused enormous disruption to all aspects of living, including sports. It was generally agreed that it would be irresponsible to hold the World Cup in Australia in 2020 as planned, with so many health and safety issues to be managed.
Fast forward to the present and India has a health situation verging on the catastrophic. Daily case numbers are pushing towards 350,000 and the health system is under unbelievable pressure trying to cope.
I have enormous sympathy for the people living in India. I cannot really comprehend the problems they’re facing, trying to cope with such a devastating health issue. That said, this health crisis in India is going to take a long time to bring under control, so it makes sense for the ICC to quickly make the decision and move the T20 World Cup to Australia.
One of the reasons for postponing the Australian tournament last year was because people were not allowed to attend games. Just last weekend, more than 78,000 people were at the MCG to watch an Aussie rules match.
It stands to reason that the same sorts of numbers would be able to attend cricket games in Australia in October if the country continues to manage the COVID situation as it’s done in the past six months.
(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
Events like this take plenty of organizing. It makes sense for the ICC to give Cricket Australia (CA) the go-ahead to start planning. That would include identifying venues, discussing travel and accommodation options and so on.
CA would also have to work closely with the various state and federal governments to ensure players’ and the public’s health are not compromised if this tournament went ahead.
The biggie in that respect would be managing people from overseas who would come to Australia to watch matches. It’s safe to assume there will be more and more travel bubble agreements with other countries, but there would still have to be reasonable health precautions are taken at grounds.
People will travel to watch games, which will impact the tourism and hospitality industries. Tour companies would need time to make arrangements for a change of country, airlines would need to make sure enough flights were available and ditto for hotels.
Players rightly hate the so-called ‘player bubbles’. Andrew Tye is returning from the IPL for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because he’s spent 11 days since August last year in some form of quarantine. If the World Cup was played in India, it’s likely that would remain the case, even if it starts as planned in October.
I doubt greatly that would happen if the World Cup was played in Australia. Yes, there’d be a need for players to be vaccinated and a quarantine period would also be a possibility. I assume there’d also be ongoing testing or screening, but that’s a small price to pay if players could mingle freely and not have to be locked up in hotels.
Players want to perform at their best and there’s little doubt many have struggled thanks to the restrictions placed on them. Mentally, cricket’s hard enough without having to cope with isolation from family and friends. These sorts of restrictions would not occur if the tournament was in Australia.
(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
One big aspect of this change of location would be the broadcasting rights. It seems Channel Nine holds the rights to broadcast ICC events, so World Cups, until 2023. This could present an interesting dilemma both for the network and for Cricket Australia, which is yet another reason why now is a good time to commit to moving the World Cup.
The World Cup was moved from Australia last year for all the right reasons. It makes sense for the ICC to make a similar move now, for exactly the same reasons, back to Australia.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Agreed. It shouldn't even be debateable. And I wonder why no media (that I've seen) has done a quick poll of the players as to whether they'll go or not?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
a)There's a 2 1/2 hour time difference between India and UAE, same as there is between India and Western Australia. b) October/November? Yes, it's the cricket season. c) That's workable
Ajay
Guest
I think everyone is missing the point. Questions that should be asked are: a) What are the other options? The UAE are best friend’s to the BCCI and on the same time zone, for which the BCCI sold its tv rights too. b) Does Australia have stadiums at that time of the year available? c) Will there be enough time for a 2 week quarantine to happen beforehand, given how tight international schedules are?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I imagine the players would have to organise their own charter flights as the players aren't there on business for CA. Still means they must be taking the "quota" place of others trying to get into the country if there is an overall arrivals cap into the country.
Paul
Roar Guru
Just in terms of your last point, I think part of the deal with giving Australia the WC is that Cricket Australia would have already sought and gained the go ahead from the various players, be it State & Federal Govt’s as well as those who run the various grounds. As you say, it’s not up to the ICC to say “okay India, we’re giving Australia the World Cup” without much of this background work being completed. As for the rest of your comment, again (sadly) you’re spot on. I’m just hoping the PM grows a set and allows some highly managed groups in, but am not holding my breath, given the panic responses that have become part and parcel of the way outbreaks are being managed in Australia.
The Bush
Roar Guru
They jump the queue the same way Hollywood stars jump the queue. There are two classes people at present - famous people who "need" to keep travelling and the great unwashed.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Jeff, I'm assuming they can't get direct commercial flights from India and would have to quarantine in numerous cities. If CA decide to get a charter flight the Aussie cricketers have to be quarantined for a minimum 2 weeks . No special dispensation .
OzinSg cricket fan
Guest
Yeah, we dare to dream i suppose. I agree that eventually he'll have to relent on the ruthless locking of the border for people wanting to leave, but I can't see how he's gonna ease up on letting people in. He has an election next year and he'll be loathe to risk an outbreak before it. Unfortunately, by absolutely bottling the vaccine roll out, the border closure is Australia's sole line of defence for the next 6 months until a sufficient proportion of the population is vaccinated which will be Nov/Dec at the earliest. That is, of course, unless Australia stops having a heart attack every time a single case breaches the market. Singapore have had a few cases a week for months now and we've not had to put in snap lockdowns or reintroduce any restrictions, while being able to slowly reopen the border. Fyi, I don't think the ICC can unilaterally award a world cup to Australia. I think the state and fed govts would need to give the ICC the endorsement nod first...considering all the stadiums are state owned.
Paul
Roar Guru
Everything you've said is completely correct - for now. I'm working more on hope than anything else - that is, hope the PM will actually commit to opening the borders for select groups of international travellers, rather than making the easy call to ban all till next year. Over the next few months, I expect he and the gov't to be placed under increasing pressure to relax travel restrictions even more, assuming there are no significant virus outbreaks. That pressure would increase significantly if/when Australia was awarded the World Cup to stage in October and Morrison being a politician would be strongly tempted to allow some people in. The Barmy Army are only taking names for the Ashes at this stage, by the way.
Paul
Roar Guru
There is an arrivals cap Jeff. WA for example has been allowing 1025 arrivals per week but I gather that's just been halved. I've no idea how the cricketers fit into this, or whether they're is some special group that aren't counted, like politicians who travel overseas?
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I'm less curious about the flight availability and more-so the actual numbers allowed into Australia. Perhaps they put themselves on a waiting list (if such a thing exists) some time ago, but then that would have been for the end of May when the IPL is scheduled to finish. Tye left a month earlier than that - indeed flew out "last minute" on Sunday. I thought there was an "arrivals cap" hence why some people have to wait so long to get back, but I could be wrong on that.
Paul
Roar Guru
There was mention of charters Jeff, but exactly what arrangements were made to get them back quickly, I've no idea.
Paul
Roar Guru
Assuming it comes down to a decision, the only thing I can see stopping this change of venue from happening is pride & stubbornness. By all other measures, it simply makes sense.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Yes, and it’s interesting we don’t seem to have heard this being raised in the media so far, though maybe I’ve missed it. A lot can happen in six months but I’d be sceptical about too many international fans being allowed in by then.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Good call. India is in dire straits right now. 1 person dying every 4 minutes from COVID in New Delhi alone (and that was yesterday). All they need to do is flip the arrangement back so we host this year and India hosts in 2022. Hopefully even the BCCI can see some sense in that and support the idea.
OzinSg cricket fan
Guest
The biggie in that respect would be managing people from overseas who would come to Australia to watch matches. It’s safe to assume there will be more and more travel bubble agreements with other countries, but there would still have to be reasonable health precautions are taken at grounds. It's incorrect to make that assumption. One of the very few things that the federal government has remained remarkably clear on during this bubble is that the only countries that Australia is considering "bubbling" with for the remainder of this year is Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and the PI countries. Scott Morrison two weeks ago ruled a line through Europe, US and the middle east this year. There is zero chance anyone from the subcontinent or South Africa will be allowed to visit Australia. Australia could definitely run a viable tournament with a domestic crowd (much like the domestic only crowd for the Olympics), but trying to sell to the states that it will be ok to have overseas supporters will be an impossible sell. Australia would need to: 1. Fully vaccinate a majority of it's population - that's now not possible. 2. Reopen it's border to both inbound and outbound travel to citizens - outbound maybe, inbound will only be through selected bubbles. 3. Start a bubble with a safe Asian country before looking further afield as proof of concept. July/Aug is when they are expecting to launch one with Singapore - a country with a proportionally higher volume of fully vaccinated residents than the UK, and a decidedly lower infection rate. We get about 3 cases a week. The UK for all their great vaccination work are still chalking up 2000 a day. 4. Remove hotel quarantine and replace with flexible/sliding scale quarantine system that Singapore has - and that can only happen safely and securely if you are a resident of Australia. That's obviously a non-starter for non citizens who don't have a "home" to isolate . IF they can get the squads over, then the tournament can happen and a great domestic audience can attend. But it's not happening for overseas supporters. Side bar - Any Barmy Army supporter booking tickets to the Ashes is kidding themselves.
Dirk
Guest
This 2nd wave is expected to peak in June/July with approx 500,000 infections per day. However, the numbers are generally agreed to be vastly under reported. It is estimated that between 5-10k deaths per day at the peak. There is no way the country will have it contained by October. Better for the Indian Govt to concentrate on getting out of this mess first.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I think anywhere that it's played you aren't going to have many, if any, fans travelling from overseas. Crowds will all be local. One advantage of somewhere like Australia is we already have plenty of people from all these different countries living here to support their teams. But surely better to have a tournament where you can at least have those local fans in seats, than have then played in empty stadiums.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
They might not you know. India might realise that the absolute best they can hope for is playing the tournament in empty stadiums this year, while if they swap with Australia and delay it a year then there becomes the chance they could actually have crowds back by then. Surely that would be better for them than stubbornly trying to hold onto this years tournament.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Plus, there's always a chance that in 2022 India may be able to host an event with crowds. There's zero chance of that in 2021. If they did manage to host a tournament it would still be in a tight bubble played in empty stadiums. Surely swapping with Australia is better for everyone.