Mark Taylor urges ICC to make decision on T20 World Cup this week

Former Australia cricket captain Mark Taylor has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to make a decision this week on whether the men’s Twenty20 (T20) World Cup will go ahead in October.

The ICC board is due to meet on May 28 to discuss a number of issues related to the novel coronavirus outbreak and Taylor said he thought they should also address the World Cup, which is due to be held in Australia from October 18 to November 15.

“It would probably be good (if a decision is made)” Taylor, who is also a Cricket Australia director, told the Nine Network on Sunday. “Because then everyone can start planning and we can stop sitting here and saying ‘well ifs, buts or maybes’. “My feeling is the World T20 won’t go ahead in Australia in October as planned. Is it going to be viable to have a world tournament in October or November? The answer to that is probably no.”

The ICC had previously said a decision on the World Cup would probably not be made until at least August.

The decision has been complicated by suggestions that administrators are also keen to reschedule the money-spinning Indian Premier League (IPL) for later this year after it was indefinitely postponed in April.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said it would not look to reschedule the tournament until after the dates of the T20 World Cup have been decided.

Taylor, however, felt the financial clout of the BCCI and the scale of salaries that players can earn for their stints in the tournament could sway decision makers.

The IPL is worth about $530 million to the BCCI and players can potentially earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for about six weeks work.