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Allan Border says he can't envisage Australia hosting a Twenty20 World Cup without spectators later this year, declaring it would defy belief.
Key points:
- The men's T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played in Australia from October 18 until November 15
- The 16-team event has matches scheduled all over Australia with the final to be played at the MCG
- Glen Maxwell says he can't envisage a T20 World Cup without fans
The T20 World Cup, which remains the only major men's cricket tournament which Australia is yet to win, is scheduled to run from October 18 until November 15.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has cast doubt on the 16-team event and prompted organisers to investigate a range of contingency plans.
International travel restrictions and quarantine periods will represent an almighty challenge if they remain in place come October, as is widely expected.
The likely absence of crowds is another stumbling block.
"I just can't imagine playing at empty stadiums … it defies belief," former Australian captain Border told Fox Sports News.
"Having teams, support staff and everyone else associated with the game wandering around the country, playing games of cricket, but you can't let people into the grounds. I just can't see it happening.
"It's either you play it and everyone just gets on with the job and we're past this pandemic.
"Or it just has to be cancelled and you try to fit it in somewhere else."
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Glenn Maxwell expressed somewhat similar sentiments at the weekend.
"If you look at the way it's going to be set out, it's going to be hard for us to have crowds there," Maxwell told ABC Grandstand.
"It's going to be hard for us to justify having a World Cup when we can't get people into the grounds. So I can't see it happening in the near future.
"I can't see the T20 World Cup surviving without any people there."
Border added a fan-free tournament would "just be about the television rights revenue".
"Which all sports need. Let's face facts … as soon as we roll into the cricket season and no cricket is being played, everyone starts hurting in our games as well," he said.
Cricket Australia has started cost-cutting measures and is bracing for a significant financial blow because of the health crisis.
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Topics: cricket, sport, twenty20, infectious-diseases-other, respiratory-diseases, covid-19, australia