Champions Trophy to be replaced with world T20 tournament

KOLKATA: The International Cricket Council (ICC) said Thursday it will kill off the Champions Trophy tournament and replace it with a world T20 championship that will be held every two years.

The death-knell for the 50-over Champions Trophy is the latest stage of efforts to use 20 over cricket in a new campaign to get wider recognition and a potential Olympic place.“The T20 format we always knew was the vehicle for growing the game and transforming the game from being a sport played by a few countries to a truly global sport,” ICC chief executive Dave Richardson said after the world body met in Kolkata.

The next Champions Trophy “will be turned into a world T20 and that fits in with our strategy to use T20 as a way of growing the game,” Richardson added.It means there will be a World T20 in Australia in 2020 and another the following year.

But Richardson said after 2021 the World T20 would be held every two years.In a further boost to the T20 game, the ICC has also decided to give “international status” to all 20 over matches between the world body’s 100-plus member nations.