Whither Champions Trophy?

Two matches into the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy tournament, a couple of things are apparent. The first one is that the empty stands bear a stark contrast to the billing of this tournament as a mini World Cup. The second thing is that if ICC is going to include minnows like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they’d better not call this as the Champions Trophy. In fact, the first point I made, is the direct result of the second.

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are simply not worthy of being included in a tournament like this. Their presence dilutes spectator interest, prolongs the tournament and leads to some embarassing matches, like the one between West Indies and Zimbabwe.

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