by While the ICC champions trophy is resurfaced in Pakistan this week, almost eight years since the last one, people will be forgiven for some double taken, to feel a bit like Ian Wright find his former teacher in This pretty viral clip, the jaw fell to Ian Wright the soil and haired it: “You are alive!” Someone said you were dead!
Although someone seriously thought that the champions trophy was a toast? They say that cockroaches and microbes would survive a nuclear apocalypse, but there are all the chances of cricket tournament I would also spring into the desert, brilliant with radiation but always ready to stick its probable winners in these white blazers of Miami vice-style style and to deliver this soft and soft diffusion silver.
In relation: Champions Trophy Cricket: team team guide of the tournament
It could be a bit hard. The Champions Trophy has always been a fun and impactful affair, its eight editions to date have launched seven different winners since its appearance in 1998. Even South Africa won one, although England, of a or another, did not do it. And while the complete 50 -year -old World Cup has become a seven -week endurance test, the little brother does not arise. From Karachi on Wednesday, the hosts displaying New Zealand, he includes 15 games in just 19 days. Ideal.
It’s just that in the T20 era – that is to say, the era of the two World Cups – the Champions Trophy was also difficult to take seriously given its reduced status and its resurrections repeated. No edition of 2013 and 2017 in England was the original plan, rather rescue positions when the thoughts of creating a world testing championship with semi-finals were interrupted. With a WTC now in the calendar, this last return concerns only the service of a television agreement of 3 billion pounds sterling which apparently must Have at least one men’s event per year.
But then the Champions Trophy has always been on money, its genesis even as a device to fill the income gap between the 50 World Cups. Australia, New Zealand and the Antilles have never organized, you will notice, their time zones not juicy enough for television. He was also supposed to take sport in emerging territories, the beginnings of the pre-test Bangladesh status and then Kenya in 2000, only so that full members could take over. The associated countries have not even appeared to one since 2004.
This last champions trophy, which is a television on Sky Sports, presents the first eight of the group phase of the 2023 World Cup, qualification criteria which have become public knowledge in half. The International Cricket Council and the star of the diffuser even thought about converting into T20 at some point, to be influenced by concerns that would reopen a four -year gap between the 50 World Cups and possibly accelerate the disappearance of the format D ‘A day.
And yet, for all its reference confectionery – the tournament is the ICC in the microcosm, we could say – this champions trophy is also an extremely significant moment for sport. Pakistan has organized its first world event for men for 28 years, the last milestone on the long way of isolation dictated by security which was first paved by the creation of the Super League of Pakistan and the slow return of Bilateral tours in the country.
Pakistan is also reigning champions, even if there are only two survivors – Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman – of this vertigo of 180 points from India to Oval in 2017.
According to the chairman of the board of directors, Mohin Naqvi, the country is simply desperate to show its warm hospitality and has paid around 16 million pounds sterling in the renovation of stadiums in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. ICC deadlines for upgrades have been beaten as an Indiana Jones spat.
The only problem? As expected when Pakistan received the tournament at the end of 2021, India does not set foot in the country after having cited their own security problems. This means the superclasico Against Pakistan, the largest silver spinner, will take place in Dubai, as well as the other group A of India has a match against New Zealand and Bangladesh. Even the final will be moved from Lahore to the desert if the men of Rohit Sharma arrive so far. Like the T20 World Cup last year, when India was playing in the Guyana semi-finals, things went around the superpower of the cricket.
If this highlights one of the problems that the ICC must juggle – or rather the countries that really dictate the CPI policy – then group B has another. Australia, South Africa and England all feel delicate to have to play in Afghanistan, taking into account the dark regime of female oppression of the Taliban. Sport has already scrambled three male World Cups with Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul in 2021, and individual boycotts seem unlikely. Full rights Trump Rights Human, it seems.
As for the contenders, India begins as a favorite, ready to unite the Champions Trophy with the T20 World Cup that Sharma and Jay Shah raised to Barbados last year. Having beat England 7-1 in eight international internationals in recent weeks, they are also in disturbing contact. This could even become a farewell of gold for two large, with Sharma, 37, and Virat Kohli, 36, having already called time on T20 Internationals.
India’s decision not to play Pakistan also provides a tactical advantage. While all other teams had to select teams of 15 men who considered the conditions in several sites – including this hops in the United Arab Emirates – India planning can be concentrated on a soil and a surface. A phalanx of spinners has been duly selected, although unfortunately the magic of Jasprit Bumrah whip, he will fail to rest a painful back.
As a 50 -year -old world champions, Australia should be the best series but has lost Pat Cummins (Ankle), Josh Hazlewood (Hip) and Mitchell Starc (Personal Reasons) – their first world male tournament without No trio since 2011. They will probably go far. Even if it is slightly eroded, the advantage at home should help Pakistan from Mohammad Rizwan, the ODI team in the world world, while South Africa, finalists of the T20 World Cup last year, Look at a value bet. Who knows, maybe England may be in life on more flat surfaces.
It all starts Wednesday and ends on Sunday March 9, TBC location. One thing we can be sure of is that the Champions Trophy will come back again after it, India being already planned to host in 2029. Because this thing is completely indestructible.
