Published 12:40 IST, August 1st 2020
Iceland govt cancels European T10 matches last minute in fear of second wave of COVID-19
Iceland's government cancelled the European T10 tournament scheduled to begin from Aug 1 due to fear of a second wave of coronavirus cases in the country.
Iceland's government has taken the decision to cancel the ECS T10 Iceland tournament a day before the tournament was scheduled to begin. The European T10 league in Iceland was scheduled to begin from August 1 but now stands cancelled indefinitely, with no rescheduling date notified. With the unforeseen cancellation, the European T10 league suffers its latest setback after one of the teams competing in the Cyprus leg of the tournament was suspended after corruption concerns.
European T10 Iceland edition cancelled at the last moment
Hours before the European T10 tournament in Iceland was scheduled to start, Iceland Cricket and European Cricket's social media handles announced that the tournament has been cancelled. The tweet on European Cricket’s account disclosed that the weekend matches have been cancelled after the Iceland government requested a postponement of sporting events in fear of a second wave of coronavirus cases in the country. The statement concluded with the communication that the European T10 tournament in Iceland will be played later over the summer.
A similar message was echoed by Iceland Cricket’s Twitter account, who shared a link of the COVID-19 controls imposed by the Iceland government. It revealed that while everyone was looking forward to the event, it has now been postponed since they didn’t get the required permissions to host the European T10 event in Iceland. The ECS T10 tournament was earlier scheduled to begin from August 1.
The Iceland T10 tournament would involve teams from Reykjavik, Kopavogur and Hafnarfjordur facing off against each other over seven games. The two top-performing teams would then qualify for the final to be played on the last day of the competition. The postponement of the tournament comes after fears in Iceland grow that a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic may be underway in the country. Currently, the Iceland corona cases count reads over 1,800 confirmed cases.
European T10 match-fixing scandal earlier plagued the competition
The impromptu cancellation of the European T10 event in Iceland comes on the back of another scandal which rocked European Cricket. Earlier this month, Limassol Gladiators, one of the five teams in the European Cricket Series in Cyprus were suspended after their match against Amdocs on July 21. The team was suspended from the competition after concerns were raised over suspicious behaviour, with an anti-corruption investigation now underway. The corruption concerns were raised by ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) due to the suspicious betting patterns ahead of the game, with betting markets clearly favouring Amdocs for the win, despite them not winning a match in more than a year.
Image Courtesy: instagram/europeancricket
Updated 12:40 IST, August 1st 2020