Cricket Australia reacts to ICC's decision to postpone 2020 T20 World Cup

Cricket Australia (CA) has reacted to International Cricket Council's (ICC) move to postpone the 2020 Men's T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to be hosted by Australia later this year, amid the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

CA welcomed ICC's 'clarity' over the matter without expressing their thoughts on whether it prefers to stage the delayed event in 2021 or 2022.

The global event was supposed to be held from October 18 to November 15 but the country’s cricket board expressed its inability to host the massive tournament amid a second surge of COVID-19 cases in the state of Victoria.

Due to the uncertainty about when it will be safe to again host a major sporting event with full stadiums, the ICC said it will continue to assess the impact of COVID-19 before making a final decision.

"We absolutely welcome the clarity, which is obviously important to make sure we can plan and deliver the best possible summer we can," CA interim CEO Nick Hockley told reporters on a video call.

"It goes back to safety and getting the best possible understand of the health situation and working with the latest and best available information."

On Monday, ICC had announced that the T20 World Cup has been officially postponed after the board met virtually.

"In terms of 2021 versus 2022 we just want to see two great events go ahead in India and Australia," Hockley said.

"But .... equally, if it’s 2022, it will be a fantastic event. In many ways it gives a little bit more time to create even more additional certainty around it, the health situation, because I think one thing, no-one knows how long this is going to last," he said.

The windows for the Men’s events are:

— ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October – November 2021 with the final on 14 November 2021

— ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October – November 2022 with the final on 13 November 2022

— ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October – November 2023 with the final on 26 November 2023