Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram believes that the International Cricket Council should wait for a more suitable time to host the T20 World Cup. The global tournament, which was last held in 2016, is scheduled to take place in Australia between October and November this year.
The ICC could decide the tournament’s fate on June 10 as there are still a lot of travel restrictions in place and getting all the teams in Australia, is going to be an onerous task.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, how could you have a cricket World Cup without spectators,” Akram told ‘The News’ on Thursday, according to news agency PTI.
“A World Cup is all about big crowds, spectators coming from all parts of the globe to support their teams. It’s all about atmosphere and you cannot get it behind closed doors,” he said.
The global body is currently looking at contingency plans to see if it can fit the World Cup in some other slot that is what Akram too thinks should happen.
{{/usCountry}}The global body is currently looking at contingency plans to see if it can fit the World Cup in some other slot that is what Akram too thinks should happen.
{{/usCountry}}“So I believe that they (ICC) should wait for a more suitable time and once this pandemic subsides and restrictions are eased then we can have a proper World Cup,” he said.
The former left arm paceman also spoke about the ICC Cricket Committee’s recommendation of banning the use of saliva to shine the ball. Akram opined that the global body needs to find a quick fix to the issue as using sweat alone will not be enough for the bowlers.
“I’m sure fast bowlers won’t like it if they are stopped from using saliva to shine the ball. They are allowing sweat but I can say for sure that it isn’t the same,” he said.
“You shine the ball with saliva and sweat is just something of an add-on, a top-up. Too much use of sweat will leave the cricket ball too wet,” he added.
“I believe that they will need to find a reasonable solution. But I would say that they will need to find a quick fix to this problem,” Akram was quoted as saying.