5 Reasons why the Champions Trophy should be scrapped

On two consecutive occasions now the Champions Trophy has respawned after the grandiose World Test Championship was set to replace the 50-over tournament. The tournament had a narrow escape in the years 2013 and 2017, and with the ICC still at sea regarding the Test Championship’s prospects, the Champions Trophy is perhaps here to stay.

However, there’s been much debate over the tournament’s importance through the last decade, especially with a Test Championship on the cards. Cricket’s truest fans were baited by ICC’s announcement to hold a WTC but were let down as a financial dispute sunk the idea. CT will hence live to tell the tale in 2017, but we at CricTracker yet believe the event should be discontinued. Here are our reasons why:

1. World Cup – premier 50-over tournament

We open with this point because it pretty much sums up our entire argument – we already have the World Cup in place, hence why a ‘Champions’ Trophy separately? It makes little sense to host two 50-over tournaments of more or less the same format. The CT was often dubbed the ‘Mini World Cup’. Now, why would any rational cricket fan settle for a ‘mini’ World Cup when he can simply follow the premier version of the 50-over tournament?

Regarding the tournament’s format, the Champions Trophy is essentially the World Cup that begins directly from the Super Eight stage. It makes little sense to have two almost identical tournaments within a span of two years, solely because the ICC couldn’t rack their brains and find solutions to set up an innovative Test tournament.

In a word, the Champions Trophy is the ‘beta’ 50-over tournament, which doesn’t top the World Cup neither in fan-following nor in glory for the victorious.

2. 50-over cricket to reduce in the next 5 years

As much as it may pain cricket fans, the advent of T20 cricket has overrun the other two formats, namely 50-over cricket and Test cricket. While some have been contemplating over the death of the longest format of the game, such a scenario is unlikely as Test cricket is after all the classical version. Getting rid of Tests altogether is next to impossible as it would mean destroying the pillars upon which cricket was founded. The ICC’s effort to put a Test Championship in place – which although has not been promising – speaks for itself.

In effect, 50-over cricket is likely to face the brunt of the T20 invasion. Over the next 5 years, 50-over cricket might not be played as much as it is today. Indeed these are speculations, but in case they do turn out as expected, then we have an issue. T20 cricket might become the most desired format, hence it would perhaps be wise not to oppose its establishment. Therefore, pushing for two 50-over ‘world championships’ wouldn’t be wise from the ICC’s part, when a more desirable alternative can be worked out.

3. Restricted to 8 teams

Where the Champions Trophy seems a tad bit unfair is that it only allows the top 8 teams to participate in the tournament. Many wouldn’t subscribe to the Champions Trophy’s concept of a multi-nation event. To put it in perspective, the FIFA World Cup allows more than 30 nations to partake in the tournament. Indeed there aren’t as many cricketing nations, but this calls for a reorganisation of the tournament’s format.

If given an option, we would allow the associate nations to take part in the Champions Trophy, who could perhaps take part in qualification leagues within their own regions and progress to the mega-event with the big boys. However, this brings us back to our first point, which is that the Champions Trophy is looking increasingly similar to the World Cup.

4. Too many World Championships

As Ravi Shastri jokingly once said, he’d be rather confused if someone comes up to him and asks ‘Who is the current world champion in cricket?’ The ICC presently has the 50-over World Cup, the T20 World Cup, and the Champions Trophy as well, which are all ‘world championships’ in equal rights. As mentioned earlier, the CT is only a shortened version of the World Cup, but it involves 8 nations, which makes it a world championship nonetheless.

In such a case where the Test Championship is put in place, then three world championships for the three formats of the game would still be meaningful. It would test the abilities of teams under widely varying circumstances that the three formats demand. However, since the Test Championship is out of the picture, the Champions Trophy’s existence is surely not required.

5. Diluting the World Cup

In any sport, the World Cup is the most sought-after piece of silverware. Each and every team playing at the highest level of its sport plays with the dream of one day becoming world champions.

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the primary multi-nation tournament for cricket, which has a special place in both players as well as followers hearts. That being said, the Champions Trophy is perhaps ‘diluting’ the World Cup’s supremacy. We constantly reiterate the first point that when there is a World Cup in place, a so-called CT is quite unnecessary. Those participating in the World Cup are already champions in their own rights, who overcame the qualifying stages and made it to the big stage.

The Champions Trophy might be an exciting tournament and offer some of the lower-ranked teams a chance to pull off a miracle. But the World Cup is a readily available platform for any such possible miracles. We firmly believe that the CT should be scrapped and members ICC must put their heads together to chalk out a fresh contest if one is required at all.

Hence, the Champions Trophy becomes redundant, and the ICC would do well to reconsider its existence rather than lingering with a tournament which is seemingly becoming more uninteresting with every year.