ICC T20 World Cup 2021: Oman ready to host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 if given opportunity.
ICC T20 World Cup 2021: As the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) mulls on the possible backup venues to stage the special ICC T20 World Cup 2021, a new country Oman has emerged as a contender to host the games if given a chance.
The Oman Cricket Association has expressed their interests in hosting the World Cup “if given an opportunity”.
The global cricket body has asked the Indian cricket board to take the final call on whether India can stage the ICC event or it needs to be shifted somewhere else, by June 28.
“The BCCI and the ICC need to take a call first on this issue. We would be delighted to be a potential venue for it,” Oman Cricket chief Pankaj Khimji told TOI on Friday.
Pankaj Khimji further said that they have all the infrastructure to host the games in a regular fashion without any trouble. The ICC has approved Oman to host all three format international games.
“Our facilities have the approval of the ICC to stage T20Is, ODIs and we also got the ICC green signal to host Test matches this year,” he added.
The Times of India report indicated that there are the possibilities that Oman might get the chance to host the T20 World Cup qualifiers if the tournament gets shifted to the UAE.
“The ICC Board has requested management focus its planning efforts for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on the event being staged in the UAE with the possibility of including another venue in the Middle East,” the ICC said in a media release on Tuesday. “A final decision on the host country will be taken later this month. The Board also confirmed that the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event regardless of where the event is played.”
ICC earlier ruled out all the six venues that were announced by the BCCI to host the T20 World Cup. An ICC team was about to land in India for a recce, however, the trip was cancelled due to the surge in the Covid cases in the country.
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