LONDON
\nThe highly anticipated schedule of the upcoming World Cup will be announced only after organisers Inter\u00adnational Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) \u201cconsultations within the cricket system and governments\u201d, the sport\u2019s global governing body\u2019s chief executive Geoff Allardice has said.
\nThe 50-over format\u2019s showpiece is set to start in the first week of October and its fixtures not out in the public with just three months to go before the first match is an unusual occurring.
\nThe schedule of the 2019 edition was released 13 months before the tournament. The fixtures of the edition before that were known to the teams and the fans 18 months ahead.
\nAlthough there has been no official statement on the reason of the delay, its highly likely that it\u2019s the ongoing deadlock between the Pakistan Cricket Board and its Indian counterpart over the upcoming Asia Cup.
\nThe Board of Control for Cricket in India has refused to send its team to Pakistan, which is to host the continental tournament in September. The Indian board is always opposed to a \u201chybrid model\u201d, which the PCB had proposed as a midway solution.
\nBCCI\u2019s apparent stiff stance may well result in Pakistan boycotting the World Cup, which PCB chief Najam Sethi had said was \u201cvery much a possibility\u201d.
\n\u201c\u2026 in some places, there\u2019s a lot of consultation that needs to take place, both within the cricket system and with governments, etc,\u201d Allardice told the BBC\u2019s Test Match Special on Wednesday.
\n\u201cWhen we put on events, we very much work hand in hand with the hosts.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of responsibility on a host to deliver a good event, and they\u2019ve got to go through the right checks and balances.\u201d
\nAllardice was reluctant to speak on whether the matter between the PCB and the BCCI was causing the delay in the release of the schedule. \u201cUntil I see the schedule\u2026 I\u2019m waiting, and I\u2019m hoping that I\u2019ll see something in the next day or two on that,\u201d he said. \u201cOur events team is very experienced at putting on cricket events in all different countries, and you control what you control.
\n\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s the approach that our team is taking, and they\u2019re working on the things that they can progress for the event. The moment we have that information, we\u2019ll be pushing on it at a rate of knots.\u201d
\nAllardice, who made a two-day visit to the PCB\u2019s headquarters in Lahore along with ICC chairman Greg Barclay recently, said that the schedule can come out anytime now, but said it was still subject to a few formalities.
\n\u201cI think even today (Wednesday) we might be receiving the schedule from the hosts, and we\u2019ve just got a bit of consultation to do with all the participating teams and the broadcasters,\u201d said the official.
\n\u201cThen we\u2019ll be publishing that as soon as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The highly anticipated schedule of the upcoming World Cup will be announced only after organisers Inter\u00adnational Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) \u201cconsultations within the cricket system and governments\u201d, the sport\u2019s global governing body\u2019s chief executive Geoff Allardice has said. The 50-over format\u2019s showpiece is set to start in the first week of October and its fixtures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-336674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n