New Delhi, July 21 (India Today) – The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday that the 2023 World Cup in India has been postponed by more than 6 months to October-November to allow a bigger qualification period in the wake of the postponement of T20 World Cup 2020.
The ICC confirmed the postponement of T20 World Cup 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The postponement meant the next three years will have an ICC tournament each. 2021 and 2022 are scheduled to have a T20 World Cup each while 2023 will see India hosting the 50-over World Cup.
While the World Cup in 2023 was scheduled for February-March, it has now been pushed to October-November due to the cramped calendar in the lead up to the quadrennial tournament.
With the T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in October-November, the decision to delay the World Cup in 2023 makes sense.
“ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 moved to October November 2023 to allow longer qualification period,” the ICC said in a release.
ICC Chief Executive Execute Manu Sawhney said the decision to push the World Cup in 2023 was taken to ensure the matches postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic are staged and thereby ensure a fair qualification process.
“Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process. This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play,” Sawhney said.
In its Road to India 2023 schedule, the ICC had said top 7 teams in ICC rankings and hosts India from the ICC Cricket World Cup League or the ODI league would qualify directly for the 2023 World Cup. The bottom 5 will play the qualifiers in 2020 along with top 3 teams from Cricket World Cup League 2 and top 2 teams from Cricket World Cup Challenge League would play the World Cup qualifiers in 2022.
In the Cricket World Cup League, each of the 13 teams will play 8 bilateral series over a 2-year period. However, the pandemic has disrupted the schedule and ICC believes the delay in the World Cup by more than 6 months will ensure a fair qualification process.
Meanwhile, the ICC also said it’s commercial subsidiary — the ICB Board will continue to evaluate the hosting scenarios for Women’s World Cup in 2021, scheduled from February 6 to March 7 in New Zealand.
“The IBC Board will also continue to evaluate the situation in relation to being able to stage the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand in February next year. In the meantime, planning for this event continues as scheduled,” the ICC statement read.
The ICC also did not mention whether India, who have the hosting rights for 2021 T20 World Cup, will host the event as scheduled, considering there is another T20 World Cup in 2022.
