SYDNEY: Staging the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia this year in the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic is “unrealistic”, Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings admitted Tuesday.

The tournament is scheduled to take place from October 18 to November 15, and officials have previously said they are planning for it to proceed on those dates.

But with many global borders still shut due to virus-related travel restrictions, Eddings conceded that was looking increasingly unlikely.

“While it hasn’t been formally called off this year, or postponed, trying to get 16 countries into Australia in the current world, where most countries are still going through COVID spiking, I think it’s unrealistic, or it’s going to be very, very difficult,” he told reporters.

Eddings said Cricket Australia had put forward a number of options to the International Cricket Council.

“The ICC are having meetings as we speak, it’s a bit of a movable feast at the moment,” he said.

T20 World Cup chief executive Nick Hockley, who on Tuesday took over as interim Cricket Australia chief, said he expected the ICC to make a decision about the tournament’s future next month.

“We’ve got a fantastic local organising committee who are busy preparing for every eventuality and the decision that will come,” he said.

The most likely scenario appears to be rescheduling the tournament until next year, but it will depend on the status of the pandemic and finding a spot in cricket’s crowded calendar.