Champions Trophy: To rid of the boredom ICC need to change format

The same was the case with Australia and New Zealand. Even the West Indies did not know what to do with so much time to idle around. And perhaps that must have been the reason for their inviting the guests in their hotel rooms. But unfortunately this was undesirable in the eyes of the public and the police.

Thanks to the close proximity of the Indians to Sri Lanka, some Indians players did not go home. Such type of tournament only reveals that about 50 per cent of the first round matches attract zero interest from the public. Yes, it is quite a laudable cause for the ICC to globalise the game.

However, the enormous money spent on it should serve the purpose and not go down the drains. For instance, Holland, Kenya, and Bangladesh are not good enough to play ‘A’ teams. It is a sheer waste of time seeing them play against Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka or India.

I would, therefore, like the ICC to seriously consider changing the present format and have two separate groups. One for the strong teams and another for the new entrants. To the lower group, the teams like USA and Canada that boast of lots of expatriates from sub-continents and the West Indies can give the event a more global look.

The upper group can play the tournament in any of the countries where cricket is developed fully, by rotation and for the lower group, the ICC can choose any participating country to generate more interest over there.

In between such tournaments, ICC should organise a lot of matches for weaker teams to play ‘A’ teams of the stronger ones. May be, relegation and promotion can take place later within the groups. This is the only way the ICC can genuinely think of globalising the game.