ICC Champions Trophy: A comeback for the 50-over show, but for how long?

A gap of eight years is too long in the life of a cricket event — so much so that the ninth edition of ICC Champions Trophy seems to be a new event altogether. When the first ball is bowled in the opening game between hosts Pakistan and New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday, it will end months of speculation and a battle of nerves, though it’s too early to say whether the event has come to stay.

It’s up to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to make up its mind on what to do with this eight-team, 50-over tournament in a tight format lasting a little under three weeks. The duration and narrow margin for error even for highly seeded teams can make it an attractive proposition for stakeholders and broadcasters, but for now, it seems more like an oddity in the current ecosystem of the game.

The uncertain future that the 50-over game faces at the moment, with the 2023 edition of the ICC World Cup in India witnessing low turnouts in several non-India matches, poses fresh questions over the ‘Mini World Cup’ as the Champions Trophy was originally known. There have been at least two occasions when cricket's world governing body made up its mind to pull the curtains down on the showpiece, but it’s back seemingly because the ICC wants one major tournament per year now. 

The clouds over the tournament — begun at the behest of then ICC boss Jagmohan Dalmiya in 1998 to boost the coffers — started gathering with the instant success of the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. Two subsequent editions of the World T20 followed in 2009 and 2010, and the buzz was that the Champions Trophy would be scrapped after the 2013 edition in England with the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle being touted as the new addition.        

‘’We have the World Cup to decide the champion for 50-over cricket. So we are not planning to hold the Champions Trophy in future,’’ said then ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat. However, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s India winning the 2013 edition in England and the tournament proving to be a roaring commercial success, the administrators reversed their decision.

The subsequent edition in 2017 was again a money-spinner, with a choc-a-bloc Oval witnessing Pakistan turn the tables on India in the final, but the ICC scrapped the 2021 version in favour of back-to-back T20 World Cups, seeing the shorter format as a dynamic vehicle to grow the game, increase revenue and boost the chances of the format featuring in future Olympics. The last box has now been ticked, with cricket making it to Los Angeles 2028.

Surprisingly, the Champions Trophy staged its third comeback when the ICC framed its tournament cycle from 2023-31, awarding the 2025 edition to Pakistan and 2029 to India. The next edition is a long way off and the one in hand seems an acid test for the so-called hybrid format, to be tried for the first time in a major ICC tournament.

Simply put, the hybrid format is a tedious exercise to avoid India and Pakistan playing on each other’s soil for the next three years, though it can pose tricky logistics issues, not to speak of expenditure, while drawing up the schedule. For example, India has a six-day break in Dubai after its game against Pakistan on 23 February before it plays New Zealand in the last group tie on 2 March. The other countries in their group — Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand — meanwhile, travel to Pakistan during that gap for their remaining matches.

Two semis in two countries

The first semi-final is then scheduled for Dubai on 4 March and the second in Lahore the day after. The final, should India make the cut, stays in Dubai on 9 March, or else comes back to Lahore. Not exactly a spectator-friendly plan, one could argue, but the ICC had no options if it was to save the tournament.

While the hybrid model is work in progress, the Champions Trophy’s place in the schedule, according to Forbes, ‘so often feels like a confused run out in the middle, but it refuses to be stranded just yet.’

For now, let the matches begin…