Breaking/Brief news
March 02, 2009
ICC's weather bureau gets into the act
One month ago, the ICC announced that the next edition (let's not split hairs over whether it is the 2008 edition or 2009 one!) of the ICC Champions Trophy would not be held in Pakistan. While the decision on the new venue was to have been announced in April, there were rumours about Sri Lanka hosting the tournament.
Now, the ICC's general manager, Dave Richardson reckons that Sri Lanka was unlikely to host the event because of concerns over the weather. Well, here's what we tell him. We told you so, Dave!. If only you'd bothered to check with us!
We wrote, a month ago, about the impact of the weather.
There's talk of Sri Lanka hosting the tournament, currently scheduled for September-October 2009. But consider that Colombo, the main cricketing centre there with three international grounds, typically has heavy rainfall from end-September all the way till November. The only international cricket venue which will be unaffected by the monsoon is Dambulla, in the centre of the country. Can the pitch handle 15 matches in a span of 17 days? I suspect not!Besides, as Patrick Kidd helpfully points out, the 2002 edition of the tournament was held in Sri Lanka in the last 15-20 days of September, and two attempts at a trophy-deciding final were damp squibs.
Spare everyone the torture. Just scrap the concept. Instead, ensure that the time that gets freed up helps test-playing countries play each other for at least 3-test series. Spend some time and come up with a way to get Bangladesh & Zimbabwe to improve more dramatically. If this requires a two-tiered test championship, figure out how to do so in the best manner without impacting TV rights owners.
Labels: 2009 champions trophy, champions trophy, icc, rain, sri lanka
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