The International Cricket Council 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 "to provide more teams with more opportunities to play".
The 50-over World Cup will remain a four yearly event. It is in England next year and India in 2023. Richardson said cricket still holds out hope of getting an Olympic place by the time of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
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. "New minimum standards will be introduced making it as easy as possible for members to play international cricket in a sustainable and affordable way," said an ICC statement. Global rankings will also be introduced from November for women's teams and May 2019 for men.
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