Champions Trophy turned into World T20
kolkata — Terming the 50-over Champions Trophy as “too similar to a World Cup”, ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson on Thursday said the next edition of the tournament, in 2021, will be converted into a World T20.
“The Champions Trophy, in a way, was too similar to the World Cup. It was difficult to differentiate,” Richardson told reporters at a press briefing held at the end of a five-day ICC quarterly meet here.
“The new FTP (Future Tours Programme 2019-2023) not only includes the fixtures in the league but it would also comprise of the two World Cups — the 50 over World Cup in 2019 and 2023.
“It will include the World T20 in Australia, both men’s and women’s. It will also include at this stage the Champions Trophy in 2021 but in all likelihood we have decided that we would change it to World T20 and that fits in with our strategy now to use the T20 cricket as the way of growing the game by virtue of having it twice in every four years instead of once.”
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was against the proposed idea of the Champions Trophy being made into a World T20, but Richardson said the Indian board’s acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhury had voted in favour of the move.
“As far as the conversion from Champions Trophy to World T20 is concerned, the BCCI representative attended the meeting when that happened and the vote was passed unanimously. So I don’t think that’s an issue,” the former South Africa wicketkeeper said. —