ICC's interim CEO Geoff Allardice on Wednesday said the body has backup plans in place for the T20 World Cup in India later this year but is currently not entertaining any thoughts of moving it out of the country despite a surge in COVID-19 cases. The tournament is scheduled to be held in October-November in India, which is reporting over one lakh daily cases for the past few days. Amid the COVID surge, the IPL is due to start on Friday in Chennai behind closed doors. "We are certainly proceeding with the event as planned," Allardice said during a virtual media round-table.
"Plan B we have, but we haven't activated those plans yet. We are working with the BCCI, we do have backup plans that can be activated if the time comes," he added. Allardice, ICC's general manger - cricket, was recently made the interim CEO after Manu Sawhney was sent on "leave" after his conduct came under the scanner during an internal investigation by UK-based audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 53-year-old Australian, who has played domestic cricket in his country, said the ICC is also in touch with other sports bodies to understand how they are managing in the COVID era. The UAE, which hosted the IPL last year, could be one of the backup venues for the shortest format's biggest international event should the situation demand a shift. During the interaction, he was also asked about the Decision Review System (DRS), of which the contentious Umpire's Call is a part, something that was dubbed confusing by India captain Virat Kohli during the limited overs engagements against England. Allardice said there was "a good discussion" on DRS during the recent ICC Board Meeting.
