Daily Times

LAHORE: Seventeen member nations have put themselves forward as potential hosts for eight men’s white-ball ICC events ––– two ODI World Cups, four T20 World Cups and two Champions Trophies ––– to be held from 2024 to 2031. Especially notable among the candidates is Pakistan, which hasn’t hosted an ICC event since the final of the 1996 World Cup. Security concerns have severely limited the amount of international cricket played in Pakistan for more than a decade now. The country was originally scheduled to host the Champions Trophy in 2008, before the event was pushed back by a year and moved to South Africa. Then, Pakistan only sporadically staged any international cricket for a decade following the 2009 attacks on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, and during that period lost out on being co-hosts of the 2011 ODI World Cup.

Ten other Full Member nations – Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe – have submitted preliminary technical proposals (individual or joint), as have six Associate nations – Malaysia, Namibia, Oman, Scotland, the UAE and the USA. A separate process to determine the hosts of the World Test Championship finals as well as Women’s and Under-19 events during this cycle will begin later this year.

“We are delighted with the response from our Members to hosting ICC men’s white-ball events post 2023,” Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s acting chief executive, said. “This process gives us an opportunity to extend our range of hosts and grow interest in cricket worldwide reaching more fans whilst creating a long-term legacy for the sport. Cricket has more than a billion fans around the world and ICC events have a proven track record of bringing significant economic and social benefits for host counties. These events provide hosts with a wonderful opportunity to work closely with local communities to grow the game whilst supporting economic and social development public policy goals. We will now move forward to the second phase of the process where Members will provide a more detailed proposal before the ICC Board takes decisions on our future hosts later this year.”

Over the last decade or so, the ICC’s men’s white-ball events have largely been hosted by the so-called Big Three boards. The last three 50-over World Cups have taken place in India (co-hosted with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2011), Australia (co-hosted with New Zealand in 2015) and England (2019), with India set to host the 2023 event as well. India were due to host this year’s T20 World Cup before it was shifted to the UAE due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while Australia are set to host the next T20 World Cup in 2022. It is not yet clear how the next cycle of events will be distributed. Earlier this year, the ICC made a U-turn with regards to the process to pick hosts for global events, returning to a process whereby hosts will be selected by the ICC board rather than determined via open bidding.