Rashid Latif & Shoaib Akhtar allege that T20 WC was postponed to make way for IPL

Former Pakistani cricketers Shoaib Akhtar and Rashid Latif have alleged that the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its board members have deliberately postponed this year's T20 World Cup to make way for IPL 2020. The seventh edition of the T20 World Cup that was originally scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November this year has been postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing global pandemic. Meanwhile, according to multiple sources, it has been learned that the 13th edition of the IPL will be played in UAE from September 26 to November 7 and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is waiting for the government's permission for the same.

'Everybody was in agreement': Rashid Latif

While speaking to Geo Cricket, Rashid Latif went on to say that the cricket boards around the world, be it India, Pakistan or England, they mostly look at the financial packages and that all the boards are in this together, not just the BCCI alone. He then mentioned that everybody was in agreement with this decision and it is not just India who stand to benefit if the T20 World Cup did not happen.

Justifying the same, Latif added that the showpiece event could have been played in February-March but it would have affected Pakistan as they would not have been able to host the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and then in April-May, the IPL was scheduled so the BCCI would have been affected, then in November-December Australia are supposed to host the Big Bash League.in April-May the IPL was scheduled so the BCCI would have been affected, then in November-December Australia are supposed to host the Big Bash League. So now, everyone in the ICC benefits from this decision.

At the same time, the former stumper also lashed out at former Indian skipper and the current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly by saying he had announced beforehand that the Asia Cup had to be cancelled even before the official statement came out and whether he was told by Pakistan Cricket Board PCB boss Ehsan Mani or the Sri Lankan cricket board, all this was all pre-planned.

'T20 WC and Asia Cup could have been played this year':  Shoaib Akhtar

Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar went on to say that both the Asia Cup as well as the T20 World Cup could have been played this year and that it was a chance for India and Pakistan to play against each other but they let it go.  Taking a dig at BCCI and Ganguly, Akhtar mentioned that ultimately a powerful man, or a powerful cricket board runs the policy and they make sure they everyone suffers. He then added that there a  lot of reasons behind this and he does not want to go into the details.

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