This year's Twenty20 World Cup will be shifted to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because of the COVID-19 situation in India, the Indian cricket board top officials said.

As the country scrambles to curb a more transmissible variant of the virus, experts have predicted a third wave of infection coinciding with the World Cup scheduled in October-November.

"We are monitoring the COVID-19 numbers in the country and there is no clarity about travel restrictions at that time," Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said by telephone.

"We will stage it there in the UAE after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"We will inform the International Cricket Council soon," he stated.

World governing body ICC had set a June 28 deadline for the BCCI to take a decision on hosting the tournament.

India's slim chances of hosting the 16-team World Cup effectively evaporated in May when the BCCI had to suspend the IPL as cases hiked in the country.