Mumbai, May 30 (UNI) Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara feels that one of the options is to cancel the T20 World Cup this year, keeping in mind the impact of coronavirus and the health concerns of the players and others involved in the global event.
The tournament is scheduled to be held from October 18 to November 15 this year in Australia, but the shakeup in the cricket calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic has put the mega-event under a cloud of uncertainty.
The ICC, in its meeting on Thursday, deferred a decision on the fate of the showpiece in Australia till June 10.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) president Sangakkara said that the situation needs to be monitored before rushing into the 2020 T20 World Cup.
'Everyday, there are new learnings, new things being found out, so we will have to wait and see, but the options may be to cancel it this year, postpone it to another year, but to have in place anticipatory procedures that take into account health and safety of both the players and the spectators, and make sure that’s iron clad, ' Sangakkara said on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.
Sangakkara, the only wicketkeeper to score more than 10000 Test runs, said there are many unanswered questions around the pandemic.
'The real thing is what’s going to happen with the virus. Is it going to disappear like SARS and MERS, or is this something that’s going to come back seasonally? Will we have to live with this particular virus or different strains of it from time to time or do we have to live with it long term?' Sangakkara asked.
'If that’s the case, then some of the changes that we have seen in our lives now, may be the new normal for us for a few years until a vaccine is found or until there’s enough immunity globally among the people to withstand this.
So, those are really questions that I don’t think anyone can answer at the moment. We will get more clarity as time goes by,' he added.
The former Sri Lanka captain said he can imagine sitting for a meeting around the ICC table and trying to find answers to all such questions.
'So, I can imagine sitting around a table for the ICC, trying to understand, consulting with experts to understand what’s going on.
And more so, the questions that a lot of us have in our minds have still not been answered by the top most experts in the world,' he concluded.
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