A Mini World Cup that doesn’t feel like one
A commercial success in the late 90’s, the Champions Trophy is searching for context, just like the 50-over format it is dressed in
Dubai: It’s difficult to put a tournament in context when it was last played eight years ago. It’s difficult to understand why the ICC put it off for this long. It’s difficult to get excited about it. But to many in Pakistan, the memory of Mohammed Amir ripping through India’s top order on a balmy English afternoon in the final at The Oval in 2017 remains a special one.
Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, who scored a match-winning hundred that day, are the only survivors from that winning Pakistani team who will feature in their tournament opener against New Zealand in Karachi on Wednesday.
The competition itself has undergone more name changes than the practice followed by some of the under-performing IPL franchises. The inaugural event in 1998 was unimaginatively given the sponsors name - the Wills International Cup. It became the ICC knockout trophy in 2000, until they settled for the Champions Trophy. Funnily enough, it was also known as the Mini World Cup, but the label never stuck.
There’s no definite reason why Pakistan had to wait so long to defend the title. Once the ICC white-ball calendar was restructured, the Champions Trophy was pushed behind to the last row in the pecking order. The T20 World Cup became a biennial event. The ODI World Cup was the showpiece tournament to be played every four years. But the Champions Trophy? No one really knows what it stands for, except that it is one of the world events for which the media rights are sold to keep the show on the road.
Pakistan get to defend their title, this time at home. Just the way the 1992 World Cup winners got to co-host the 1996 tournament. It’s been a while.
“For nearly three decades, two generations of people were deprived of witnessing an ICC global event on home soil. That changes now. This is your moment to fill the stadium,” PCB Chairman and the country’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said at the curtain raiser event in Lahore on Sunday.
“I have visualised that if we get to lift the Champions Trophy in Lahore, where I come from, that would be a different feeling,” Pakistan all-rounder Salman Agha said on the PCB podcast. “It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. If it turns into a reality, it would be my career best moment.”
The build-up event at the Diwan-e-Aam, once Shah Jahan’s pillared hall, in Lahore fort, had the grandeur in look-and-feel, but the main players were not in attendance. Some of the teams were yet to arrive. There will be no captain’s photo-op, no open media session to build the buzz.
Many of the T20 freelancers have been on the road for too long. Lockie Ferguson was announced as the latest casualty on the eve of the tournament, in a long list of injured bowling stars, none bigger than Jasprit Bumrah. The teams will turn up for practice and show up for matches in swanky new jerseys, just like that.
India will be playing their matches in Dubai. Pakistan will play New Zealand in Karachi, fly to play India in Dubai and return to play Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. A complicated schedule finalised last-minute. Just the way the refurbishment of stadiums in Pakistan was also last-minute.
Back in the day, the tournament was a marketing brainchild of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the first Asian administrator to head the ICC. He came to power on the strength of the Asian block that included the Pakistani vote.
In those days, 50-over cricket was still the format of choice. Indian cricket fans would remember the 2000 edition in Nairobi fondly. It was there that they got the first glimpse of the skiddy fast bowler from Ahmednagar, Zaheer Khan, who went on to be India’s greatest left-arm pacer. It was also there that the breezy left-handed elegance of Yuvraj Singh was first on show. Before T20 took firm footing, the Champions Trophy would be played every two years.
Now, it’s not just a question of the tournament facing an existential crisis, the 50-over format itself is stuck between two extremes. But then again, sometimes, one good tournament could spark a format back to life. And maybe the Champions Trophy will be the one to do that for ODI cricket.
It may seem like a lavish dream at this point. But at the start a tournament, isn’t that what all teams do.
Recommended Topics 