Goodbye, Champions! : The Tribune India

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Goodbye, Champions!

CHANDIGARH:The International Cricket Council (ICC) has finally scrapped the Champions Trophy, which India won in 2013 and lost in the final to Pakistan in 2017.

Goodbye, Champions!

Virat Kohli celebrates India’s win in the 2013 Champions Trophy in London. Four years later, Kohli was the captain when India lost the final to Pakistan. File



Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has finally scrapped the Champions Trophy, which India won in 2013 and lost in the final to Pakistan in 2017. The 50-over tournament, scheduled to be held in India in 2021, will be replaced by the T20 World Cup; this means that there will be two T20 World Cup tournaments in consecutive years — in Australia in 2020 and in India the following year. India will also host the 50-over World Cup in 2023.

The Champions Trophy, which included only the top-8 teams in the world, had been immensely popular because of its shorter duration and lack of lopsided contests between top teams and ‘minnows’. However, as the relevance of 50-over tournaments came to be questioned over the last 10 years, the existence of the Champions Trophy has been in doubt right since 2009. 

Bigger tournament

“The 2021 Champions Trophy in India will now change to World T20. It fits into our strategy of growing the game,” ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson said in Kolkata at the end of the ICC Board meeting. 

There was speculation that the Indian cricket board (BCCI) might object to the scrapping of the Champions Trophy, but Richardson clarified that the ICC decision was unanimous. “Well, the BCCI representative attended the board meeting and the vote was passed unanimously. So I don’t think that’s an issue,” Richardson said.

“The Champions Trophy in a way was too similar to the World Cup, always quite difficult to differentiate. Why you are having a World Cup and then a Champions Trophy? It was difficult,” he added. Richardson was asked if the 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy looked similar, what was the rationale behind holding two T20 World Cups in 2020 and 2021? He merely said it was a “little bit unfortunate”. “Unfortunately, that’s just because of the schedule how it works,” he said. “There would not have been an option I suppose of moving the T20 into 2022. But going forward in the future, every two years World T20, every four years the World Cup and don’t forget the ODI League building up to each World Cup.”

Revenue, inclusiveness

There are two big reasons behind the switch from Champions Trophy to T20 World Cup: One, the belief that a tournament which carries the ‘World Cup’ tag will be of greater interest to spectators and sponsors; second, a 16-team World Cup will be more ‘inclusive’ than the 8-team Champions Trophy.

The Champions Trophy was originally conceived with the objective of generating revenues for ICC; when Jagmohan Dalmiya became ICC president in 1997, he realised that ICC had practically empty coffers. The first tournament, called the mini World Cup, was held in Bangladesh in 1998 and raised over £10 million. The tournament was held every two years thereafter, and every four years after 2009. But as T20 leagues took off after 2008, the existence of the Champions Trophy came into question. 

— With agency inputs


ICC mulls stricter sanctions on ball-tampering, on-field behaviour  

Kolkata: In the wake of the ball-tampering incident by Australian cricketers against South Africa, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Dave Richardson has called for “stricter and heavier sanction” for any such act as well as for showing lack of respect for the game.  “We want to move towards stricter and heavier sanctions for ball-tampering and all other offences that are indicative of a lack of respect for your opponent, the game, umpires, for fans, for the media etc,” Richardson said at the end of a five-day ICC quarterly meet here on Thursday. “This includes offences like using abusive language, sledging, send-offs after a batsman is dismissed and dissent at umpire’s decisions.” Richardson said the ICC wants its cricket committee headed by former India captain Anil Kumble to put proper penalties in place for the offences. “We want penalties in place which act as a proper deterrent. Fines are not proving to be the answer and we will ask the cricket committee to review our current penalties related to each of those types of offences,” he said. Richardson further said there will be an additional panel in place to police on-field behaviour which will have the likes of former Australia skipper Allan Border and former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock. — PTI

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