T20 World Cup 2021: BCCI officially informs ICC to shift the tournament to UAE from India

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New Delhi, June 28: The T20 World Cup 2021 scheduled to be held in India is being shifted to the UAE owing to the health safety concerns posed by COVID-19, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said on Monday (June 28).

The mega-event was scheduled to be held in October-November this year in various venues across India.

"We have officially intimated the ICC that the T20 World Cup can be shifted to the United Arab Emirates. The details are being chalked out," Ganguly was quoted as saying by PTI.

The ICC, at the start of the month, had given BCCI a four-week window to decide and inform whether India could host the marquee event considering the COVID-19 situation in the country. It was earlier reported that the tournament was being shifted to the UAE.

This was after the pandemic forced the postponement of IPL 2021, the second part of which is also being held in the UAE in September-October.

This was after the pandemic forced the postponement of IPL 2021, the second part of which is also being held in the UAE in September-October.

The IPL 2021 was initially held in India but constant bio-secure breach within the teams first forced BCCI to suspend the tournament, and then shift it to the UAE as they did it with IPL 2020, which was held behind closed doors.

From then onwards, speculations were rife that the ICC T20 World Cup too could be shifted out of India. At that point, the host nation was not finalised if the shift indeed materialise.

Once the IPL 2021 was moved to the UAE, it became easier for the BCCI to inform the ICC that the global event too could be conducted across four venues in the Emirates. However, the BCCI will retain the hosting rights of the T20 World Cup 2021 irrespective of where it gets played eventually.

The ICC in its meeting earlier this month had given the BCCI a month's time to decide whether it can host the T20 World Cup or it needed to shifted to a different country.