Mumbai: Sri Lankan batting great Kumar Sangakkara feels that one of the options is to cancel the T20 World Cup this year as many questions around the COVID-19 pandemic remain “unanswered”.
Sangakkara, who is the president of the prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), feels the situation needs to be monitored. In its meeting on Thursday, the ICC deferred a decision on the fate of the showpiece in Australia till June 10, while continuing to explore contingency plans amid a ranging pandemic that has derailed calenders worldwide. “Everyday, there are new learnings, new things being found out, so we will have to wait and see, but the options may be to cancel it this year, postpone it to another year, but to have in place anticipatory procedures that take into account health and safety of both the players and the spectators, and make sure that’s iron clad,” he said.
Sangakkara said there are many unanswered questions around the pandemic, which has brought sporting activity across the world to a grinding halt. “The real thing is what’s going to happen with the virus. Is it going to disappear like SARS and MERS, or is this something that’s going to come back seasonally? “Will we have to live with this particular virus or different strains of it from time to time or do we have to live with it long term?” Sangakkara asked on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’. The former Sri Lanka captain added, “If that’s the case, then some of the changes that we have seen in our lives now, may be the new normal for us for a few years until a vaccine is found or until there’s enough immunity globally among the people to withstand this. “So, those are really questions that I don’t think anyone can answer at the moment.” (PTI)
