BCCI perhaps should look at the UAE as an option to host World T20, feels Michael Hussey

05/20/2021

Michael Hussey, who was in India for the IPL, has insisted that BCCI should perhaps look at the United Arab Emirates as an option to host the World T20 with the COVID cases rising in India. He also stated that if the tournament is hosted in India, there are chances of contracting the virus.

Until the end of April, the Indian Premier League went on smoothly, without much worries. However, come the start of May, the troubles started ringing in loud and clear in the form of Covid-19 cases, which eventually resulted in the tournament being postponed in the end. Amongst the several who tested positive for the virus was the former Australian cricketer, Michael Hussey.

Hussey has stated that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should now be looking at the UAE as an option to host the World T20. The southpaw also clearly stated that hosting the tournament in multiple cities in India could be of worry, especially after the IPL fiasco.

"I think it's going to be very difficult in my view to play that tournament in India," Hussey told 'Fox Cricket' upon his return to Sydney, where he is undergoing a 14-day quarantine.

"We're talking about eight teams in the IPL. I think there are probably similar number, maybe more teams coming in from overseas (for the T20 World Cup), there'd be more venues. As I said earlier, if they're playing in different cities, that is when the risk goes up,” he added.

Not just that, Hussey reckoned that India and BCCI should already start looking at the UAE to host the competition, where the threat of the virus isn’t as big as in India.

"I think they'll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that'd be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament," said Hussey.

Hussey was one of the people to have contracted the virus in the country during the IPL. Narrating the incident, CSK’s batting coach stated that it took a toll on him but wasn’t really life-threatening.

"At the time I thought I didn't feel great, but not life-threatening or anything like that. But it does take its toll on you after a while I guess. My initial test came up as a weak positive, and we were sort of hoping the next would be negative and it'd be alright, but unfortunately I got retested the next day and that came back positive.”

"To be honest, I had already started feeling some of the symptoms and so I was thinking, 'I'm pretty sure I've got it'."