International Cricket Council (ICC) has been mulling over scrapping ICC Champions Trophy for a while now. They want to incorporate two T20 World Cup’s in the four-year cycle in order to generate more revenues, The ICC Chairman Dave Richardson has expressed his desire to do so. If this happens then Pakistan might be the last Champions of the Champions Trophy. India are expected to host the next edition of the tournament in 2021 but ICC might discontinue the tournament altogether. Richardson has also expressed the possibility of participation of two teams in order to promote cricket. There might be a few major changes in the schedule. Also, ICC are to decide whether to give Test status to Ireland and Afghanistan or not.
“What we want to do is differentiate our global events from each other so that they can be standalone and create maximum interest every time the event happens,” Richardson told reporters via telephone on the eve of the ICC’s annual conference in London.
“At this stage, the next Champions Trophy is still scheduled for India in 2021. Whether that gets changed, the consideration has been given to changing to two T20s in a four-year cycle which would mean swapping the Champions Trophy for a World T20.”
He added: “The fact is that World T20s do attract a lot of interest, they generate significant revenue for the television companies, but most importantly from our point of view they provide us with an opportunity to give more opportunities to more teams.
“A 16-team World T20 — even a 20-team World T20 — down the line is something that we would like to look at.
“With a 10-team World Cup we’re hoping to increase the competitiveness of matches and the standard of the tournament as a whole.
“It might not be necessary to continue with two 50-over tournaments going forward.”
“It’s never wise to try and make a call too early, but certainly the applications of both are very well founded,” said Richardson.
“They both, on the face of it, meet the majority, if not all, of the full member criteria that has been set.
“I’m optimistic that they’ll be given serious consideration to have every chance of succeeding.”
