Some sports fans glued to television sets and other audio-visuals may have been wondering about the seeming surfeit of men’s international Twenty20 cricket — in addition to the franchise variety — in recent months.

There is good reason. Preparations are ongoing for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Persian Gulf neighbours, United Arab Emirates and Oman, in October/November.

As has been the case for almost every aspect of life since early 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic has played a dominant hand in the organisation and hosting of the upcoming tournament.

Yet COVID-19 wasn’t even around when the tournament to follow the 2016 edition was pushed back from 2018 — which would have fitted the two-yearly cycle. It was reset to 2020, because of cricket’s crowded schedule.

The arrival of the pandemic in early 2020 put paid to that plan with the ICC deciding to postpone. Shortly after that the postponed tournament was switched from Australia to India, this year.

All seemed on track until a devastating surge of COVID-19 in India, a few months ago, forced another switch — this time to the Persian Gulf, where cricket is growing by leaps and bounds.

Cricket watchers will recall that West Indies are defending champions in men’s T20 cricket after their fairytale win over England in the 2016 final.

Back then, West Indies needed what seemed an unlikely 19 runs to win in the last over. But Mr Carlos Brathwaite blasted England seam-bowling all-rounder Mr Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes to trigger pandemonium in the Caribbean and the wider cricket-playing world.

Yet the T20 stocks of the West Indies — also winners in 2012 — have plunged since Mr Brathwaite’s heroics, partly because of quarrels and disagreements involving players and administrators. For years such turmoil rendered West Indies unable to field its strongest team in all international formats, including T20, the shortest version.

Understandably, there has been more optimism in recent weeks after West Indies were very competitive against visiting South Africa in a 2-3 T20 series loss, and more latterly had the better of visiting Australia in a five-match series which ended last night.

From the perspective of West Indies cricket supporters, the recent successes partially made up for heavy losses suffered last month by the Test match team to South Africa, prior to the T20s.

Encouragingly, there is a lot more short-format cricket for West Indies players before the T20 World Cup, including an upcoming tour by Pakistan to be followed by the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

That means West Indies selectors and captain, Mr Kieron Pollard, should be able to settle all questions and select the strongest possible team ahead of the World Cup.

West Indies fortunes apart, considerable intrigue will surround management of what will be the first multi-team international cricket tournament since the onset of COVID-19.

As can be seen from the current situation globally, the pandemic remains a long way from being contained.

No doubt organisers will be watching closely and seeking to learn from the Olympic Games — monumental in size, compared to the T20 Cricket World Cup. The Olympic Games, let’s not forget, opens in Tokyo a week from now.