The International Cricket Council said Wednesday it had decided to reschedule the Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan, postponed this year amid security concerns, to next September. The ICC said in a statement the tournament would go ahead between September 24 and October 5, 2009, with the matches being played in just one city in Pakistan, rather than the two mooted for this year.
The tournament, which will include one reserve day, will therefore be five days shorter than the originally scheduled event. The Board said it had considered available options following the original postponement and had decided that the final week of September and opening week of October fitted the bill with the shortened timeframe allowing for a single city.
The ICC Board said it will make a final decision on the location following India's tour to Pakistan early next year in order to facilitate preparations by teams, broadcasters, commercial partners "and other stakeholders". The Board added that a full schedule including match locations "will be announced in due course". ICC President David Morgan said: "We are delighted to have slotted the ICC Champions Trophy into the FTP (future tours programme) in 2009 thus maintaining the primacy of ICC events, and we now look forward to staging an outstanding, memorable event next September/October.
"The ICC Champions Trophy is part of a host of great ICC tournaments taking place next year, including the ICC Women's World Cup, the ICC World Cup Qualifier and the ICC World Twenty20 for both men and women.
"All these events during the ICC Centenary year will showcase cricket in the best possible light and will help to ensure that our great game remains a strong sport growing stronger." ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat added: "I'm hugely encouraged by the spirit of togetherness and teamwork shown by our members in ensuring we have found a place for the ICC Champions Trophy in next year's calendar.
"The tournament, with its new format of the top eight teams playing in a short, sharp event, is vitally important for the world game," said Lorgat, adding that Sri Lanka remained the stand-by venue should the security review in February 2009 be negative.
This year's championships were postponed after South Africa pulled out, amid doubts over the participation of Australia, England and New Zealand. But even the postponed Champions Trophy appeared in danger when both India and Australia objected to October 2009 dates as it clashed with Australia's seven-one-day international tour of the sub-continent.
And as per ICC's agreement with the various sponsors, they have to hold a postponed tournament within one year of the original dates. The new dates were finally worked out to the satisfaction of all boards involved, but the tournament had to be reduced to 12 days. "Given how packed the cricket calendar is, rescheduling dates is always a difficult task," said Morgan.
Morgan also confirmed that the 2010 Champions Trophy will be held as scheduled in the West Indies. Lorgat denied there were any moves within the ICC to change the format of the Champions Trophy, or to make it a quadrennial tournament. "There has been some speculation about a change in format, but that's not true. We believe the current format is doing well, and reducing it to 12 days should work out well."