Coronavirus: T20 World Cup postponed to 2021

The 2020 T20 World Cup has been postponed until 2021, the ICC has confirmed.

The competition had been scheduled to take place from October 18 to November 15 this year in Australia.

However, the coronavirus pandemic threw the tournament into doubt, and the ICC confirmed in a statement on Monday it has been pushed back to 2021.

The rearranged T20 World Cup will begin in October next year, with the final scheduled for November 14.

India had been due to host the event in 2021 but that competition has also been postponed by a year and will start in October 2022, the final taking place on November 13, 2022.

To allow for a longer qualification period, the 50-over World Cup, which had been pencilled in for February 9 to March 26, 2023 in India, will now commence in October and conclude with a final on November 26.

Documents T20 World Cup Hope it doesn't come to this... The #T20WorldCup scheduled to take place in Australia this year has been officially postponed. pic.twitter.com/PZnzVOmW8T

— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) July 20, 2020

ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said: "The decision to postpone the ICC Men's T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.

"Our members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket.

"Moving the Men's Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process. This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play.

"Throughout this process we have worked closely with our key stakeholders including governments, members, broadcasters, partners and medical experts to enable us to reach a collective decision for the good of the game and our fans. I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment to a safe return to cricket."