Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cricket

International tournaments

In July 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that both the 2020 and 2021 editions of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup had each been postponed by one year due to the pandemic.[1] Therefore, the 2020 tournament was moved to November 2021, and the 2021 tournament was moved to October 2022.[2] The 2023 Cricket World Cup was also rescheduled to take place eight months later than planned, with the tournament moved to October and November of 2023.[3] Australia and India retained the rights to host the tournaments,[4] with the ICC announcing on 8 August that India will host the 2021 tournament, and Australia will host the 2022 tournament.[5]

Also on 8 August, the ICC confirmed that the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup and the tournament's qualifier had each been postponed by one year due to the pandemic.[6][7]

Africa

The coronavirus pandemic impacted on several international cricket fixtures and tournaments. The 2020 ACA Africa T20 Cup Finals was scheduled to take place in Kenya in March 2020, before it was postponed in line with the Kenyan government's 30-day ban on international gatherings.[8][9] On 13 March 2020, the Netherlands tour to Namibia was cancelled due to the pandemic.[10] Three days later, Ireland's tour to Zimbabwe also got cancelled.[11][12] On 24 March, Namibia tri-series was postponed.[13]

On 11 June 2020, the ICC confirmed that the Cricket World Cup Challenge League (B) has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[14][15] The following month, the ICC also confirmed that the Namibia Tri-Nation Series, scheduled to take place in September 2020, had also been postponed.[16][17]

In August 2020, Afghanistan's tour to Zimbabwe was called off, following an increase of COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe.[18][19] Later the same month, the Netherlands' tour to Zimbabwe was also called off.[20][21]

Asia

The 2020 Everest Premier League in Nepal was also postponed on 12 March.[22] On 13 March, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the start of 2020 Indian Premier League will be postponed from 29 March to 15 April.[23] On 16 April, BCCI suspended the tournament indefinitely due to the pandemic and on 4 June BCCI announced that IPL will staged outside India.[24] On 13 March, BCCI cancelled the ODI matches between India and South Africa on 15 and 18 March, which were originally announced to be played without spectators.[25] On the same day, the two-match Test series between Sri Lanka and England, scheduled to be played in March 2020, was also postponed.[26] The remaining seven matches of the 2020 Road Safety World Series were rescheduled to a later date.[27] It was earlier decided that the remaining seven matches of the tournament would be played behind the closed doors in DY Patil Stadium.[28]

A women's quadrangular series was scheduled to take place in Thailand in April 2020,[29] but was cancelled a month before it was due to start.[30] The 2020 Malaysia Cricket World Cup Challenge League A, scheduled to take place in March 2020, was postponed,[31] along with two T20I matches between a World XI and Asia XI side.[32]

On 12 March, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that all remaining matches of the Pakistan Super League's ongoing fifth season being played in Karachi (where the majority of cases in Pakistan had been concentrated) would be closed to spectators.[33][34] On 16 March 2020, the remaining play-offs in the 2020 Pakistan Super League were postponed due to a huge spike in the number of coronavirus cases around the country.[35] The Bangladesh tour of Pakistan for a single ODI and a Test match was also postponed.[36] On 24 March 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that all ICC qualifying events scheduled to take place before 30 June 2020 had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This included 2020–21 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier for Western and Eastern sub-regions.[37]

On 9 April 2020, there was an announcement of postponement of Australia-Bangladesh Test series.[38] On 20 April 2020, Sri Lanka and South Africa cricket boards confirmed that SA tour to the island nation has been postponed.[39]

On 23 June 2020, New Zealand cricket team's tour to Bangladesh, which was scheduled to take place in August, was postponed.[40] A day later, on 24 June 2020, the Bangladesh's tour to Sri Lanka was postponed due to the pandemic.[41]

On 9 July 2020, the 2020 Asia Cup was postponed until the following July,[42] with the 2020 Asia Cup Qualifier tournament cancelled.[43]

Europe

On 11 March 2020, English teams Worcestershire and Surrey both cancelled their pre-season warm-up tours to the United Arab Emirates.[44] The following day, Australia Women's tour to South Africa in March 2020 became the first major international series to be curtailed due to the pandemic.[45] On 21 March 2020, announcemnet was made for postponement of Bangladesh's summer tour to Ireland.[46][47] Teams from Austria, Luxembourg and Romania were to tour Belgium for their T20 international series in April and May. All the three series got cancelled.[48][49][50]

On 21 April 2020, the Dutch government banned all public events in the country through August, requiring the postponement of tours of the Netherlands by New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies. A quadrangular series to by played in Netherlands in June was also postponed.[51][52]

On 5 May 2020, Tom Harrison, chief of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the ECB could lose as much as £380 million if the entirety of the season were to be cancelled, and hoped that investments in the upcoming limited overs competition The Hundred could be a "profit centre" for the ECB.[53] Australia were originally scheduled to tour England in July 2020 to play three One Day International (ODI) and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. Due to pandemic, in May 2020, it was suggested that the dates for the series were moved back to September.[54] The New Zealand tour of Ireland was postponed on 15 May 2020 due to the pandemic. At the same time Pakistan's tour was also called-off.[55]

On 1 June 2020, the Professional Cricketers' Association confirmed that county cricketers will continue to take pay cuts of up to 20 per cent for the months of June and July.[56] On 10 June 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that the Scotland tri-series, also involving Nepal and Namibia has been postponed due to the pandemic.[57]Australia were suposed to tour Scotland for a solitary T20I. However, on 17 June 2020, Cricket Scotland confirmed that the match had been cancelled.[58]

North America

On 13 March 2020, the 2020 United States Tri-Nation Series was postponed due to the pandemic and travel restrictions to the United States. The tri-series also involved Scotland and the UAE.[59][60] The 2019–20 West Indies Championship was suspended due to the pandemic and Barbados was declared the champion on 24 March.[61]

The men's and women's Central American Cricket Championship were scheduled for April and May 2020 respectively. On 1 April, both tournaments were cancelled as a result of the pandemic.[62]

New Zealand's tour of the West Indies[63][64] and South Africa's tour of the West Indies[65][66] were both postponed, after the West Indies tour to England was rescheduled.

South America

On 23 March, the ODI series between Brazil women's team and Argentina women's team was postponed .[67]

Oceania

On 14 March 2020, the remaining two One Day International (ODI) matches of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy along with the three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series between Australia and New Zealand were cancelled due to new border restrictions imposed by the New Zealand government.[68] The first ODI match of the series had been played on 13 March behind closed doors in Sydney.[69] The following day, Cricket Australia confirmed that the final round of matches in the 2019–20 Sheffield Shield season had been cancelled, with New South Wales being named as the winners of the tournament.[70] New Zealand Cricket cancelled the final two rounds of matches in the 2019–20 Plunket Shield season,[71] with Wellington being named the winners of the tournament.[72] On 24 March 2020, the ICC confirmed that all ICC qualifying events, across all regions, scheduled to take place before 30 June 2020 had been postponed due to the pandemic. This included tri-series in PNG, including PNG, Nepal and UAE.[37]

On 30 June 2020, Zimbabwe's ODI tour to Australia was postponed.[73][74] On 4 August 2020, the West Indies T20I tour to Australia was also postponed.[75][76]

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gollark: My test WHY binary comes out as 1MB, cool.

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