Posted by “I’ve always enjoyed 50-over cricket,” said Jos Buttler this week. “It’s always been one of my favourite formats.” Really, Jos? You don’t say. One of your favourites? Would it make your top three?
Speaking of third-bests, the Champions Trophy looms, well, not large exactly, given its status as very much the bronze medallist out of the three regular international tournaments. It looms medium-sized. It looms ignorably, if you were feeling unkind.
History does however suggest that it can be a fun thing. We still rather like the middle format when the time and place is right. It’s where you get overlap. It’s the place where the stars of the other two formats meet.
Is the Champions Trophy the right time and place though? Kinda. We’d argue it showcases the one-day international at its second-best. Unlike the T20 World Cup – which comes around so often that you can legitimately write a preview of the next one if you for some reason don’t fancy covering the final of the current one – the 50-over World Cup is still only once ever four years. This means that the Champions Trophy, while not quite the real thing, can serve as a half-decent Methadone.
England’s three group stage games – against Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa – will take place in Lahore, so the 50-over leg of their current India tour represents decently-relevant preparation, all things considered.
Preparation for the preparation
England have lost today and there’s a good chance that’ll hold true even if you don’t read this article until Sunday. England don’t win one-day series in India too often. The Guardian’s Taha Hashim reports the last such result came 40 years ago.
They didn’t win the T20 series either, going down 4-1. How relevant is that? Well, the lengthening of format has meant just one meaningful change for England: Joe Root is now in the squad. He made 19 off 31 balls today, but we wouldn’t bank on him continuing to play so ineffectually. Joe tends to work things out.
India have had a bit more staff turnover. Out goes Abhishek Sharma, who made 79 off 34 balls in the first T20 and 135 off 54 balls in the last one. So too Tilak Varma who made an unbeaten 72 off 55 balls in the second match.
They are replaced by the legends: Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Rohit continued his stellar recent form today, making 2 off 7 balls, having made 3 and 28 when he turned out for Mumbai last week for the first time in 10 years. Kohli missed the game with a knee injury after scoring six whole runs in his first appearance for Delhi for 12 years.
Shubman Gill also missed the T20s. He made 87.
Ravindra Jadeja, who’s retired from T20s, took 3-26.
Champions Trophy prospects
India can improve.
England can certainly improve.
It’s worth mentioning here that while the Champions Trophy is, on paper, the first global tournament to be hosted by Pakistan in 28 years, India will in fact be playing all their games in Dubai. And if (and only if) India make the final, that’ll be in Dubai too.
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What do people think about the Champions Trophy having a group stage? I thought the straight knock-out format was a nice USP and ensured it didn’t overstay its welcome. But clearly made the thing less lucrative, as well as a pain for half the teams – and any accompanying fans – who’d turn up for what turned out to be a single game. It did change a loooong time ago, but I still think of the tournament as the “ICC KnockOut”. If it’s struggling for relevancy now the ODI World Cup has such a similar set-up, the original knock-out format might be worth revisiting. Though perhaps with a repechage stage added so they’re all guaranteed at least two games… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-elimination_tournament
With just eight teams involved, we’d say it’s a pretty decent format. In the last World Cup, 10 teams all played at least nine games. Here eight teams play three and then it’s straight to the semi-finals.
It’s 48 games v 15 with the same number of straight knock-out matches and plenty at stake in, what, two-thirds of the group stage games in the shorter tournament? Pretty decent and don’t think it outstays its welcome.
Yeah, the format’s pretty appropriate for a The “Not The World Cup” Cup kinda thing, or Mini World Cup if you’re being more generous. My main gripe is group stage matches where qualification is at stake for one team but nothing is at stake for their opposition. That’s one of the pros of the double or triple elimination format, or at least providing some extra incentive for teams that can’t qualify for the knock-out stage, e.g. a better pathway to qualifying for the next tournament if you don’t finish bottom of the group.
The original incarnation had a big focus on global development, being staged in growing cricket markets outside the main countries. That was a nice thought but not commercially optimal, so using associate co-hosts for some ICC tournaments is probably the better model. It also provided slots for a few leading associates. Another nice touch, but not easy to reconcile with the rebrand as a “Champions” Trophy for the top teams.
Given that T20 is the sport’s natural growth format, I can see the logic for an “inclusive” T20 World Cup and a relatively “exclusive” ODI World Cup. The question is whether your “Mini World Cup” should be even more elitist (which would fit better with it being the smaller competition, and accepting “Mini” means “less global”) or whether it should attempt to help top associates bridge between the two (which makes sense if you think the highest prestige tournament should be a full-on round robin, a format in which weaker teams would be less attractive, and a small group or knock-out format would provide a better berth for them to get 50-over tournament experience with a meaningful chance of progression if they cause an upset or two).
Talking of tournaments with round robin stages, here is my latest epic from Lord’s on the other hard ball game.
It includes some toilet humour for those who enjoy that sort of thing:
https://ianlouisharris.com/2025/02/02/the-mcc-real-tennis-club-weekend-related-potty-adventures-31-january-to-2-february-2025/
Perceptive readers might realise, from some of the content, why I have been a bit quiet around here for the last few weeks, and why that state is likely to subsist for a few weeks longer.
GL with that, GL.