Dean Jones suggests alternate venue for T20 World Cup

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Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones has suggested New Zealand as an alternate venue for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 World Cup, currently scheduled to take place in Australia from October 18 to November 15.

Professional sport in New Zealand could welcome fans back to stadiums as early as next week with the government set to decide whether to lift all social distancing restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will decide on Monday whether the country is ready to bring its alert system down to level 1, which would lift limits on mass gatherings that were imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“Jacinda Ardern said NZ could move to alert level 1 next week, which means all social distancing measures and curbs on mass gatherings will be lifted, she said. Maybe play the T20 WC there,” Jones tweeted.

 

Jacinda Ardern said NZ could move to alert level 1 next week, which means all social distancing measures and curbs on mass gatherings will be lifted, she said. Maybe play the T20 WC there? #justathought

— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) June 3, 2020

 

New Zealand recorded no new cases of coronavirus for a 12th consecutive day on Wednesday and has just one active case.

Last week, Cricket Australia (CA) boss Kevin Roberts had downplayed the prospect of the Twenty20 World Cup going ahead in 2020, saying the October-November schedule was under “very high risk” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jones, in an interview with Sportscreen on Tuesday, echoed similar reservations regarding the possibility of staging the mega event in Australia as scheduled.

“T20 World Cup isn’t going to happen in Australia this year for a lot of reasons,” he said. “Firstly, Cricket Australia has retrenched a lot of people. So when you have 16 teams here, and 30-40 people per team including staff, players and administrators, you won’t be able to do it.”

“Cricket Australia will make 220 million US dollars on a full India tour of four Tests and ODIs. And of course, they in a pickle, like all other cricket boards and so they are trying to protect their own space. So I think they can handle India and not be able to handle 15 other countries coming here,” he added.

The sport’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), who has the final say over whether the event will go ahead, is expected to announce its decision in the next board meeting on June 10.