Published 14:04 IST, March 19th 2020
Coronavirus: West Indies offer to host entire England cricket's home summer in June 2020
The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the world of cricket and Cricket West Indies has come forward to help the ECB in its time of need.
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The world of cricket is currently standing still as the COVID-19 pandemic has made it hard for any games to be held. Not only is cricket on a pause, but the future of the upcoming calendar year is under high speculation. Currently, the IPL 2020 has been postponed to a date beyond April 15 and its schedule will highly impact the remainder of the heavily-packed cricket calendar for 2020.
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Coronavirus: West Indies cricket lends a helping hand to England cricket
The West Indies cricket board (Cricket West Indies) has reportedly offered to lend a helping hand to the England cricket board (England and Wales Cricket Board). A report from a popular cricket portal states that the move proposed by the West Indies cricket board is suggested out of altruistic intention. The novel coronavirus has already caused more than 2000 infections in the UK and it is being projected that the UK has not seen the peak of the pandemic's effect yet.
Holding cricket matches in such a situation would be highly risky for all the personnel involved and that is why the West Indies cricket board is volunteering to let the ECB host the England vs. West Indies Test series (from June 4) in the Caribbean. The broadcast and the commercial rights for the tour will still be possessed by the ECB but the matches will be comparatively risk-free as the Caribbean has seen not more than ten cases of COVID-19 yet. Among the reported options that have been discussed between the ECB and CWI, talks have also been held around the England vs. West Indies series to be rescheduled to September 2020.
CWI has also offered to host the England vs. Pakistan Test series that was supposed to be held at the end of July. These changes could also mean that the Caribbean Premier League will get postponed to the end of the year and run in parallel with the Australian Big Bash League. The IPL 2020 will be a major talking point as the BCCI has the IPL postponed amid coronavirus fears and the T20 tournament often decides the flow of the international cricket calendar.
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14:04 IST, March 19th 2020