With no crowds, T20 World Cup doesn't make any financial sense to Australia; IPL 2020 better option: Murali Kartik

New Delhi, July 7: After a hiatus of three months due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, international Cricket is set to resume. However, former cricketers are not yet sure about the upcoming T20 World Cup 2020 which is scheduled to be held in Australia in October.

Many believe that cricket without fans would be boring while there are others who are of the view that hosting matches behind closed doors is the only way forward.

In the latest episode of FanCode's Unlock Sports, former India cricketer Murali Kartik voiced his opinion on the possibility of the World T20 happening in Australia, as well as the future of IPL 2020.

"I'm surprised that we're having two World T20s in the space of whatever number of months, 2020 Australia, 2021 India. 16 countries coming in, and again with no crowds, I think that doesn't make any financial sense to them (Australia). And, if it can be pushed back, it's all the more better and they would rather have India coming in to play a Test series or a bilateral series," Kartik said.

The left-arm spinner, who has played 46 international matches for India, believes that in this scenario, the IPL is a better option financially. "This is something which I'm given to understand that even if IPL doesn't have people coming in, which is into the stadiums, I think that money is offset by the broadcast money and all the other things."

As per reports in Australia, CA, as well as the ICC, have come to a consensus to cancel the showpiece event this year and the announcement about the same would be made during this week.

The cricketer-turned-commentator has never shied away from putting his opinion on controversial rules like mankading and concussion substitutes, and strongly opposed the new ICC rule changes, which will come into effect in the upcoming England-West Indies Test series.

Speaking about the saliva ban, he further told FanCode, a multisport aggregator platform by Dream Sports, "When you're gonna have Covid negative players, why can't they use saliva on the ball? If you and I are Covid negative and only then can we play in a team, why can't I use saliva? That was the reason why saliva was used. From the time Cricket has started, both the balls (red and white), they've only had saliva on it to shine it. Saliva means say in a team of 11, different people are using saliva, it's not one man's saliva so that has been the case and we've had no problems and we're gonna resume normalcy, by testing players, I don't understand why saliva can't be used."

He wants someone to 'explain' the rule changes properly before cricket resumes. "If you want to start Cricket, normalcy should resume in the form of logic being clear. Imagine I'm walking back to my bowling mark, and I do that. (hand gesture of applying saliva to the ball). Do you mean to say you will change the ball? And if that happens 10 times in 30 minutes, how many balls are you gonna change?"

It's fair to say that Kartik has raised some valid questions which will be answered when eventually the first Test between England and West Indies gets underway, come 8th July.