After the long wait, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finally informed the International Cricket Council (ICC) that the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup will now be played at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) instead of the previous plan of hosting in India. The increasing covid cases is a major reason behind the shift. While the cases have been on a downward slide since the start of June, the impending third wave which might hit India in October-November has forced BCCI to change its decision.
As per words from an official of a state association who attended the BCCI Special General Meeting on 29th May, the president has informed the members that they were trying to get a tax exemption as hosting the event without a tax exemption would have hurt the BCCI financially.
"The BCCI President had informed the members during the virtual SGM that they were trying to get tax exemption from the Indian government in order to host the T20 World Cup in India. Without the tax exemption, the BCCI would have had to bear a burden of about Rs 1,000 crore while the revenue would remain the same irrespective of who hosts the event or where it is hosted."
"Ganguly had informed the BCCI members that if the Indian board failed to get tax exemption, it would not be hosting the tournament in India," the official was quoted as saying by ANI.
The members of the different state associations were already expecting the tournament to be shifted out of India as they were unlikely to get the tax exemption. Ganguly, the BCCI president had already informed the ICC that BCCI won’t be hosting the showpiece event if they didn’t get the tax exemption.
"Ganguly informing the ICC that the BCCI would not be hosting the T20 World Cup in India was expected by the members even at the time of the SGM because the general feeling was that the BCCI might not succeed in obtaining tax exemptions," said the BCCI official.
"To be honest, the government does not give any preferential treatment to the BCCI over the other sports federations and therefore it was always going to be difficult to get a tax exemption that had earlier been obtained for a previous World Cup tournament," the official further added.
At the SGM, it was also said that the remaining games of the Indian Premier League would be held in the UAE as the monsoon season in the country would make it impossible to hold the matches in India.
Speaking on the tax issue and change of the venue for the World Cup slated to be played later this year, another BCCI official said that the critics are trying to analyse and understand how the BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly didn’t manage to avoid the situation but the now the only focus is preparing for showpiece event and holding it in the middle east.
"There will obviously be a lot of analysis as to how Ganguly should have engaged with the ICC to avoid this situation of the tournament moving out of India rather than rest his hopes on getting the tax exemption, something that was beyond the control of the BCCI or the ICC but that's all hindsight. At least now with this decision out of the way, the focus will shift towards cricket and the preparations for the World Cup," the official concluded.