DUBAI: Indian media conglomerate Disney Star has reportedly demanded the International Cricket Council (ICC) to hold the Champions Trophy 2025 in T20 format, English newspaper The Guardian reported on Friday.
With the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 coming to its closure in a few days and three teams having thus far booked their spots in the semi-finals, there is still much to fight for the sides, placed at the bottom.
As the top seven sides at the conclusion of the group stage of the ongoing World Cup, besides hosts Pakistan, will qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
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For the unversed, the qualification scenario for the Champions Trophy 2025 was approved by the ICC Board in 2021 when the multi-national tournament was brought back.
Meanwhile, Disney Star, the media outlet that captured the broadcast rights for all ICC events in a four-year deal running from 2024 to 2027, reportedly intended for the eight-team competition to be in Twenty20 format rather than one-day international, according to The Guardian.
But the media outlet’s demand raised question marks on the qualification scenario of the Champions Trophy 2025 like how a 50-over World Cup can dictate qualification for an eight-team T20 event.
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Moreover, if ICC somehow adapts a different system for picking up eight teams, such as ranking points then it would create massive confusion for the teams, who are still fighting to dodge the bottom two in the ongoing World Cup.
Moreover, the move would also pose a major threat to the already downhill ODI cricket.
The conversion of Champions Trophy 2025 into T20 format will result in oversaturation of the format as the T20 World Cups are scheduled for alternating years between 2024 and 2030, including the Twenty20 format for the 2028 Olympics.
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