ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is expected to take place in February in Pakistan. With less than 100 days to go for the mega event, there is no update on the final host for the tournament and also the schedule for the competition.
According to popular sports journalist Vikrant Gupta, the broadcaster of Champions Trophy would like to have the mega event canceled. Champions Trophy is one of the two ICC events happening in 2025, with the other being the World Test Championship Final scheduled to take place in England after the Indian Premier League.
The official broadcaster may secretly be wishing for the Champions Trophy now to be cancelled.
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) December 3, 2024
Here are three reasons why canceling Champions Trophy will be the best move for business for everyone involved in the tournament.
1. ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be very rushed if at all it happens
Asia Cup 2023 was a major mess last year because the matches were shifted at the last moment. There were poor crowds in Sri Lankan stadiums even for the India vs Pakistan matches. Even though the quality of cricket was good, the fans did not enjoy the competition much. Even some players were tired of traveling from Pakistan to Sri Lanka.
2. ODI format tournament may not attract viewership
Champions Trophy was already canceled once by ICC after the year 2017. It remained canceled from the calendar years for a reason. An eight-team tournament in the ODI format does not make much sense. It will be better if the tournament returns with a T20I format in the coming years.
3. Too many ICC events in a short duration
The ICC events may lose their relevance if they keep happening every now and then. The T20 World Cup happened just six months ago, and just one year has passed since the ODI World Cup. If the Champions Trophy happens in February, it will be 3 ICC events in less than two years, thereby impacting the relevance of the trophies.
