- The 2021 Champions Trophy was scheduled to be held in India
- There will be a World T20 in Australia in 2020 followed by another T20 meet next year
- India will be hosting the 2021 World T20 and the 2023 Cricket World Cup
The decision of International Cricket Council (ICC) to scrap the Champions Trophy tournament in 2021 was taken after the apex body of world cricket found the 50-over tournament "too similar" to the World Cup.
The ICC on Thursday, April 26, announced it would be replacing the Champions Trophy in 2021 with a World T20. Notably, Australia will be hosting a World T20 in 2020 and thus, there will be two T20 tournaments within a span of 12 months.
"The Champions Trophy, in a way, was too similar to the World Cup. It was difficult to differentiate," ICC chief executive David Richardson told reporters at a press briefing held at the end of the five-day ICC quarterly meet in Kolkata.
"The new FTP (Future Tours Programme 2019-2023) not only includes the fixtures in the league but it would also comprise of the two World Cups -- the 50 over World Cup in 2019 and 2023.
"It will include the World T20 in Australia, both men's and women's. It will also include at this stage the Champions Trophy in 2021 but in all likelihood we have decided that we would change it to World T20 and that fits in with our strategy now to use the T20 cricket as the way of growing the game by virtue of having it twice in every four years instead of once.
"The World T20 will give more teams the chance to play in global events," Richardson added.
An overdose of World T20?
Richardson added that they explored the possibility of moving the 2021 World T20 to 2022 but decided against it due to the bilateral commitments of international cricket teams in 2022.
"It's a little bit unfortunate we are having an event in 2020 and twelve months later we are having another one, unfortunately, that is because of the schedule. There would have been an option of moving the 2021 T20 into 2022, but with the bilateral series going on we couldn't," Richardson said.
"Going forward, every two years (we will have) a World T20, every four years the World Cup and the ODI league building up to each World Cup."
BCCI had opposed the idea of World T20 in 2021
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was against the proposed idea of the Champions Trophy being made into a World T20, but Richardson said the Indian board's "representative" voted in favor of the move.
Sources later said acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary was present in the meeting and voted in favor of the decision.
"As far as the conversion from Champions Trophy to World T20 is concerned, the BCCI representative attended the meeting when that happened and the vote was passed unanimously. So I don't think that's an issue," the former South African wicketkeeper said.
Asked about tax issues affecting India in hosting the 2021 event and the 2023 World Cup later, Richardson said: "The tax exemptions, I will leave aside for the moment. Obviously, at this stage anyway, the event is scheduled for India and so is the World Cup in 2023. We want to work with the BCCI in trying to secure a favorable tax situation."
The Indian government had refused to exempt the 2016 World Twenty20 leading to the ICC suffering a revenue deficit. Since then, the BCCI has tried desperately to alter their stance, but to no avail.
