The second series of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Challenge League A, set to begin on 16 Mar 2020 in Malaysia becomes the first ICC event to be postponed due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The 11-day tournament scheduled between 16th and 26th Mar 2020 involved teams from Canada, Denmark, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, and Vanuatu. Singapore Cricket Association had already made public the schedule for 2nd round on their social media account before the announcement of the postponement.
Due to a rapidly developing heath emergency with increasing travel difficulties between countries and potential uncertainty arising for individuals returning to their country of origin, the decision was taken to postpone the event to later in 2020. ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said: “We have made the difficult decision to postpone the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Challenge League A due to the Coronavirus outbreak. We have been monitoring the situation very closely and have concluded that the best course of action is to postpone the event owing to the increasing travel difficulties between countries and the potential uncertainty around teams returning home.”
“I would like to thank the Malaysian Cricket Association and all participating Members for their support. The wellbeing of everyone involved is our first priority and we look forward to the event being played later in the year.”
Canada and Vanuatu had already announced their squads for the tournament weeks ago for the event. This however, is not the only tournament to get cancelled/postponed due to fear of COVID-19 oubreak, as the Thailand 4-nation Women’s Quadrangular and Nepal’s domestic T20 franchise league, Everest Premier League were also hit due to the precautionary steps taken by the concerned authorities.
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