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ShareMumbai: It's now official. The World Twenty20 championship in the West Indies has been postponed by a week. It will now be held from April 30 to May 16 next year as against the original dates of April 23 to May 9.The International Cricket Council has confirmed to DNA about the revised dates.
The postponement has helped the Indian Premier League (IPL) considerably. The IPL, one may note, will be held from March 18 to April 23. So is there a link between the postponement of the World T20 and the IPL schedule? It's anybody's conjecture but the coincidence is inescapable.
No one is willing to come on record about the coincidence. "That is not significant. It was put off after a decision at the Board meeting in April. I don't know if there was a request from any party," ICC spokesman said.
Asked the same question, a highly-ranked official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India said he would not comment if the Indian side made the request. "That is immaterial. The requests have to be genuine. Not every demand is accepted at the ICC level."
Meanwhile, there is some confusion over the status of the tournament in the West Indies. A West Indies Cricket Board official has told DNA that the tournament will be called Champions Trophy and not the World T20. When asked repeatedly about it, Derrick Nicholas, cricket operations officer of the WICB said he is not mistaken about the status of the tournament. "I'm not mistaken. The ICC tournament in the West Indies next year will be the 2010 Champions Trophy, which they [ICC] have agreed will be in the form of a Twenty20 tournament."
The ICC, however, has said the confusion is unfounded, "We've no doubts over it. The next year's tournament in the Caribbean is the ICC World Twenty20," the spokesman said adding: "Pakistan will be the defending champions having won the event last month. There is no confusion." The tournament will be launched officially next week.
