The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to scrap the 2021 ICC Champions Trophy and replace it with a World T20 event. Consequently, the ICC World T20 scheduled in 2020 will be followed by another T20 in 2021. The decision was made at the end of ICC’s 5-day meet in India. Such a scenario has already taken place in the past in the years 2009 (England) and 2010 (West Indies).
Addressing the media, ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson said that the global body had unanimously agreed that the 2021 Meet that is to be held in India would now be carried out in the shortest format with the participation of 16 teams. BCCI Representative Amitabh Chaudhary reportedly voted in the favor of the move.
While the 2020 T20 is scheduled to take place in Australia and the 2021 T20 championship will be held in India, thereby leading to two T20s, one after another.
The ICC is also making efforts to persuade International Olympic Committee to include cricket in Olympics. As the 2024 Olympics will be hosted by Paris, there isn’t enough time to include cricket in the even within such a short time interval but ICC is optimistic that the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will witness inclusion of Cricket.
The last Champions Trophy was held in 2017 in England whereby Pakistan won the tournament by beating India. But as the 50-over tournament isn’t going to continue anymore (for now), the team may not be able to defend their crown for long.
With the cancellation of ICC Champions Trophy, World Cup will be the only major tournament in the 50-overs format. While the 2019 edition will be played in the UK, the 2023 World Cup will be hosted by India. As per Mr. Richardson, it’s quite difficult to distinguish between World Cup and Champions Trophy and hence it doesn’t make much sense to have both.
