ICC to decide Champions Trophy future at Board meeting today
The ICC Champions Trophy's future will be discussed at the ICC Board meeting in Auckland today and in all likelihood, it could be scrapped altogether. The tournament is believed to be replaced by World T20 as the latter would provide more opportunities to Associate Members of the ICC.
In the latest edition of the Champions Trophy, Pakistan had claimed the title by upsetting India at The Oval in the final and the event was seen as a huge success with good crowds attending almost all matches. An India-Pakistan final then ensured that broadcasters saw a huge return on investment. But if all the speculations of T20 prioritization and ICC's announcement of Test and ODI championship are anything to go by, then the last edition could be the last edition of the tournament. ICC also wants to slot in World T20 as the latter would provide more opportunities to Associate Members of the ICC as opposed to the Champions Trophy, which is restricted to eight teams.
Also, the Champions Trophy's close resemblance to the ICC World Cup has been one of the strongest reasons going against it.Â
"It's always been quite difficult to distinguish or differentiate between the two 50-over global events. With the World Cup becoming a ten-team event, it's almost like the World Cup is becoming more like the Champions Trophy, which I think is a good thing," said ICC CEO David Richardson earlier in the year.
Apart from that, an additional World T20 has also been mooted to be played in 2022 and the venue of that event could be confirmed at the meeting. So, the possible structure might work like this - a World T20 every two years, a World Cup every four years and a continuous Test and ODI Championship.