The death of a tournament that cricket deserved
In the National, Osman Samiuddin writes on how changing priorities in cricket's administration have led to the death of the Champions Trophy
22-Apr-2013
The Champions Trophy began as a money-making venture for the ICC, but for a brief period, it was a platform to take the game to cricket's newer entrants. Its format made it leaner and better than the World Cup. Yet, as Osman Samiuddin writes in the National, the tournament has suffered as administrative priorities have changed in the advent of Twenty20 cricket.
Here was a tournament conceived purely to make money, yet inadvertently turned into a truer world cup than the World Cup itself. Administrators then made it out to be the villain in the postponement of the World Test championships to at least 2017 (the ICC wanted that event held this summer, but the broadcasting contract it had signed included at least one more Champions Trophy).
Here was the tournament all of cricket wanted: shorter, sharper, quicker, decisive. If that does not capture the muddled sense with which cricket is dealing with its various formats and the pressures on its calendar, then what does?