NEW DELHI, July 27: The World Test Championship (WTC) schedule has been thrown haywire by the COVID-19 pandemic and its much-awaited final next year will depend on the number of rescheduled bilateral series after the disruption, ICC GM (Cricket Operations) Geoff Allardice said on Monday.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the Futures Tours and Programme (FTP) into disarray with the T20 World Cup already postponed to give member nations time to complete their bilateral commitments.
�We are currently in discussion with members on what their plans are around rescheduling their series,� Allardice answered to a query from PTI during an interaction with news agencies.
Given the circumstances and tight schedules, ICC might have to postpone the June final at the Lord�s as Bangladesh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England have backlog series but Allardice, a former Australian first-class cricketer, would like to wait a bit more.
�Obviously their teams have re-scheduled them (their engagements) as quickly as possible. Depending on how many of them (postponed series) could be re-scheduled within the available time will give us the most appropriate timing for the final. But at this stage the final is scheduled for June 2021,� he said.
�We are working with the members on that...Countries are now working out on how to resume and when it�s best to resume and they are all in their process of looking at calenders,� Allardice added.
Allardice also made it clear that the ICC�s role in this scenario would be of a facilitator for the members as the body can�t directly get involved in drawing up their calendars. � PTI
