ICC does a U-turn on format of Champions Trophy

Six months after it defended the structure of the tournament, ICC President Ehsan Mani indicated that the tournament could have only eight teams with the top five ranked teams and the host nation qualifying automatically while the remaining four countries, now that Kenya has been excluded, slog it out for two slots.

I have a better option. Scrap the tournament altogether. The whole point of the tournament has been diluted over the last six years. It started off as a fund-raiser for the associate and affiliate members. The tournament was held on a knock-out basis in Bangladesh and Kenya. Obviously the intention was to raise the profile of cricket in the venue it was staged. The next stop where the ICC wanted to spread the game was, of all places, India. Due to the same taxing issues being confronted with currently, it was moved to Sri Lanka and was played six months before the World Cup! England was the next host and provided a thrilling final, but the huge number of mismatches defeated the purpose of including the cricketing minnows.

Anyone with a basic idea of a product strategy, and I include myself in this list, would realize that the ICC has no clue about what it wants this tournament to be. It is much better off saving money by not organizing this tournament.