COVID-19 impact: ICC moves to work-from-home policy for most of its staff

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to move to a work-from-home policy for the majority of its staff.

The ICC's top officials, including chairman Shashank Manohar and chief executive Manu Sawhney, are preparing for a video conference to address the cricket calendar being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the world body did not specify until when it plans to carry on with this arrangement.

Most of the events, including the IPL and international tours, have been either postponed or cancelled owing to the coronavirus outbreak. The crisis has severely affected the upcoming English season as well.

"Like the rest of the world, the ICC is following guidelines from authorities and in line with the approach of our members, the majority of our staff are now working from home," an ICC spokesperson told PTI.

"Our priority is to protect the health and well-being of staff whilst remaining fully operational. The team has the full remote working capacity and as a result, we can keep the ICC fully functioning while keeping our staff, their families and the wider communities safe."

The pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province, has so far claimed over 14,000 lives while infecting more than three lakh people across the world.

It is learnt that for those who are not working form home, the operations will be "split across two sites to maintain critical functions and at the same time limiting the risk as much as possible".

The men's edition of the T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played in Australia in October and November, but there remain doubts over the staging of the event with the Australian government focussed on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic first.

On March 12 the ICC had decided to hold its meetings scheduled for Dubai at the end of March via conference call only, in light of the concerns expressed by its members.

(Image credits: ICC)