Against the backdrop of too much cricket, a crammed calendar comprising three international formats and T20 and T20 leagues around the world, in addition to The Hundred in England, and with genuine concerns over the future of bilateral ODI cricket, here comes the ICC Champions Trophy.
This specific tournament – essentially a mini World Cup – was last played n 2017 when Pakistan beat India to lift the trophy in London. The ICC has announced that the Champions Trophy will return in 2019, but four years from now, where the ODI game will be is anyone’s guess.
From a marketing perspective, the 50-over format still brings with it plenty of advertising revenue given the duration of an ODI. But the shadow of fatigue and overkill hangs over the return of the Champions Trophy, as it searches for relevance in the today’s choc a bloc cricket ecosystem.
Since 2020, when Covid19 interrupted the world’s rotation, there have been four ICC white-ball tournaments: the T20 World Cup in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and the ODI World Cup in 2023. Add in two World Test Championship finals in 2021 and 2023, and we have had six ICC tournaments in four years. In 2026 will be another T20 World Cup, followed by the next ODI World Cup in 2027.
You can thus argue, validly, that we don’t need the Champions Trophy sandwiched into the calendar in 2025.
On top of this, if one were to look at this edition, starting February 19 in Karachi, followed by India’s first game a day after in Dubai, you could be forgiven for rolling your eyes and wondering if there aren’t enough international cricketers keeping themselves fit for the cash-rich IPL that begins March 23.
Australia will be without Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis. India are missing Jasprit Bumrah. South Africa will be without Anrich Nortje and Gerald Coetzee. England are down a man in the young all-round talent, Jacob Bethell. Pakistan won’t have free-stroking opener Saim Ayub and Afghanistan just lost AM Ghazanfar, their latest all-sorts spinner. With so many cricketers missing, and with interest in ODI cricket dwindling, will fans tune into watch the Champions Trophy on a mass level?
The Pakistan Cricket Board certainly needs the tournament to be a success, so that it can host more ICC events (the last one was in 1996, when Pakistan were joint hosts of the World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka). India, who have not lifted an ICC ODI trophy since 2013, desperately need to win something to shed the tag of being bilateral bullies and chokers (yes, they are almost up there with South Africa). Australia have won every single ICC trophy since 2021 but have not got their grasp on the Champions Trophy since 2009.
England, getting poorer by the day in white-ball cricket, do not look anywhere near a top four team but given the condensed nature of the Champions Trophy, anything is possible. Win two out of three in round one and you’re into the semi-finals where, let’s face it, it can be a lottery.
South Africa won the very first edition of the Champions Trophy when it was first held in 1998 in Dhaka, then dubbed the Wills International Cup/ICC Knockout Trophy. And that remains their only global title to date. Given their painful litany of exits in ICC events since then, the Proteas do not immediately look favourites given their depleted bowling and the fact that in Pakistan last week, they failed to defend totals of 304 and 352.
New Zealand, perennial bridesmaids at ICC World Cups (ODIs and T20Is), have just won a tri-series in Pakistan where they will play two of their three league matches (the other will be in Dubai, against India). They are a solid ODI team, having most recently staying unbeaten 3-0 during their run to the Pakistan tri-series title, but the odds are always stacked against the Black Caps in Asia when it comes to applying the finishing touches. They were knocked out of the ODI World Cup semi-finals in 2011 (in Sri Lanka) and 2013 (in India) and beaten by England in the UAE in the final of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh are far from a consistent ODI team, which leaves Afghanistan as the likeliest to knock out a couple higher-ranked sides, particularly given their experience in Pakistan and Dubai. And that, as we saw during the 2023 and 2024 World Cups when Afghanistan beat several comers, is where the fun in white-ball cricket still lingers: when less fancied teams bully the bigger ones, thus upsetting the proverbial apple cart and the financial lifeline of such tournaments.
The ICC and its broadcast partners might not profit as much when unfancied teams make it to the semi-finals of these events, as opposed to if India and Australia make the finals, but for ODI cricket to remain relevant, and keep fans engaged, a few more memorable wins for Afghanistan could just be what the 2025 Champions Trophy is remembered for.
