The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday selected Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the backup venues to host the 2021 T20 World Cup, if the ground situation of the COVID-19 pandemic does not shown any improvement in India.

ICC had earlier announced that India will stage the 2021 edition of the men's T20 World Cup followed by Australia hosting the marquee event in 2022.

As per a report in ESPN Cricinfo, the apex cricket body in the world selected Sri Lanka and UAE as back-up venues to host the T20 World Cup next year keeping in mind the persistent threat the Covid-19 pandemic in India which is not showing any signs of withering off in the near future.

It is a general practice and regular protocol followed by the ICC to always have a backup option for a marquee event like the World Cups, however this time the back-ups have been in wake of the threat posed by the COVID-19 on the T20 World Cup in Indian next year.

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With more than 23 lakh covid-19 cases and over 45,000 deaths reported in India, the ICC is taking no chances of stalling the marquee event and hence has kept two back-up venues as an alternate if things do not get better in time for India to host the tournament.

Earlier, the ICC removed the long haze over the fate of the 2020 T20 World Cup by postponing the flaghsip event to 2022 on account of the underling Covid-19 threat. The 2020 World T20 which was scheduled to take place in Australia this September will now be staged in 2022.

In the recently concluded ICC meeting, it was decided that India would host the 2021 edition and Australia would do the next.

With the BCCI all set to conduct the IPL ain UAE this year, ICC would have a keen eye on the safety of the tournament to understand the feasibility of conducting the T20 World Cup there if the situation arises.