The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday officially postponed this year's T20 World Cup slated to held in Australia. The decision was announced after a decisive round of deliberation when the ICC board me tvirtually.

The tournament was scheduled to take place between October 18 to November 15 in Australia, but Cricket Australia's (CA) chairman Earl Eddings,back in June, opined that it would "unlikely" and"unrealistic" for the nation to stage the tournament. Besides,Australia has witnessed a recent surge in the number of of COVID-19 cases in Victoria over the last few weeks. "The IBC Board agreed to continue to monitor the rapidly changing situation and assess all the information available in order to make a considered decision on future hosts to ensure the sport is able to stage safe and successful global events in 2021 and 2022," the ICC stated in a release.

"The IBC Board will also continue to evaluate the situation in relation to being able to stage the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand in February next year. In the meantime, planning for this event continues as scheduled."

The decision made by ICC subsequently opens up a window of opportunity for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to stage the 13th season of the Indian Premier League.

BCCI had indefinitely postponed IPL 2020, scheduled to start from March 29 ownards, owing to rise in coroanvirus concerns.

BCCI is likely to host IPL 2020 in the UAE between Septemberand November. The final decision is expected to be made later this week afterthe board manages to get permission from the government for stging thetournament in the UAE and for players and officials of the team to travel.

"The first step was postponement of Asia Cup, which has happened. We can only start to move ahead with our plans after the ICC announces the postponement. They have been sitting on the decision even after Cricket Australia said that they are not too keen on hosting the event," a BCCI Apex Council member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.