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Follow UsCricket bodies around the world aren’t the biggest fans of announcements and public clarity. Most things stay in the board room, and if revealed, they come out through sources from select journalists. Even though BCCI's cases are the most notorious of them all, fairness hasn’t been as fluid elsewhere either. Some boards are just good with optics and play it in a softer way, avoiding the harsh criticism that BCCI sometimes go through.
What has transpired in the last two days is a classic case of boards leaving a sordid aftertaste.
England coach Matthew Mott was alerted by the press that only the top seven teams from the ongoing World Cup and the host nation, Pakistan, would qualify for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled for 2025 in Pakistan. England’s current standing doesn’t allow them to be confident about their chances. The news also meant the likes of West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Ireland wouldn’t even get a chance to make it to the event.
How did it come to this?
How could ICC make a decision randomly, and the boards, here in this case, a giant like ECB, couldn’t be possibly aware of it?
Turns out the ICC wasn’t to blamed here. The above decision was, in fact, taken during the ICC Chief Executives meeting back in November 2021, with all boards in attendance, and was subsequently ratified by the ICC Cricket Committee, chaired by Sourav Ganguly.
As far as ambiguity goes, there was supposed to be nothing, but the ICC didn’t have the common sense to send a press release detailing such an important change in metrics - which could have just avoided all of this confrontation.
Cricket.com reached out to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials to know the details, and all of them confirmed to us individually that they were very much aware of the new rule change since 2021 as the ICC had looped them in the email.
However, the previous management of ECB failed to notify the changes to their new set-up, which left Mott in the lurch.
You couldn’t fault him, but that allows an opportunity for the ICC and ECB to keep a better communication system in place.
At a time when ICC sold multi-billion dollar broadcasting rights for the ICC events in a seven-year cycle, seeing the fate of a global event that is being recuperated is undeniable. The ICC Champions Trophy in 2025 is the only global 50-over tournament before the next ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa - and we are not sure whether any of the events in the format are sustainable at this moment.
Not only will the Champions Trophy return after a gap of eight years, this will be the first global event in Pakistan in the 21st century.
The allure of ODI cricket is at an all-time low. The only saving grace for the 2023 edition of the quadrennial event is the India factor and the desperation of the fans to see their team winning a global ICC trophy after a hiatus of a decade.
Would the fans continue to lap into the format in the future?
We are in a time in the future where it seems too long and boring - devoid of any entertainment in the middle overs. Asking fans to stay committed to a format just for the legacy factor is too much.
Further, in the geopolitical situation that we have found ourselves in, imagining India to travel to Pakistan is a virtually impossible equation. In all realistic sense, India will either force a venue shift, as they did for the Asia Cup 2023, or the ICC will make a pragmatic decision, looking at the viability of the format.
If it is changed to the T20s, how much would the 2023 WC standing make a difference? That’s also left for debate.
It’s imperative for the ICC to take stock of their modus operandi as well as make a quick decision regarding the fate of the event. Pakistan needs cricket as much as cricket needs Pakistan, and if they are to suffer from extraneous factors, it will do no good to their cricket. Just ask anyone who was there in Chennai supporting them against South Africa and how they breathed life into the event. We can’t afford to ill-fate them or do harm to the bigger picture.
