Champions Trophy starts eventually

By Rajadhyax

After security threats, organisational hassles and change of venue, the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 has started, afterall, in South Africa with Sri Lanka flooring the hosts in the opening match. And breathing a collective sigh of relief are the organisers, players, broadcasters, fans, sponsors and everyone else associated with the show-piece event. This is also the right time to take a sneaking look at the history of the tournament that is often touted as second in importance only to the World Cup as far as ODIs are concerned.

The ICC Champions Trophy started as ICC Knock-Out Tournament in 1998 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. South Africa won the inaugural one and since then New Zealand (2000), West Indies (2004) and Australia (2006) have taken the trophy home. You may remember that in 2002 the India-Sri Lanka final was interrupted by rain and both were declared as joint winners at the Premadasa Stadium. So in a true competitive spirit both teams are yet to lay their hands on the trophy.

Originally it was played between ten full members of ICC and two Associate Members. Played every two years (unlike the World Cup that is played every four years), it came to its present title in 2002. From 2009 onwards only eight highest ranked ODI teams will participate in the event. But actually the tournament was scheduled for 2008 with Pakistan being the ordained hosts. Most teams refused to travel to the strife ridden country and the attack on the Lankan team in Pakistan played a big part in the refusal of teams to participate in matches played there.

But security was not the only issue, it seems. There were logistic issues as well, concerning selection of specific venues. Finally the dates were moved to 2009 and the venue was also shifted to South Africa. No one objected to the move and Pakistan did not apparently have anything to say in support of their claim that it’s a country safe to play cricket. The bleak future of international cricket played in Pakistan continues even as the premier event has got off to a good start in South Africa.

The outfields in SA are simply superb and look to be very well maintained. The crowds are coming. The atmosphere, as expected, is building up gradually. The stadiums are exceptionally well designed. One or two of the players have grumbled about the nature of wickets at Wanderers but that seems more incidental than academic. Former Test player Javed Miandad criticised the wicket a bit but the organisers should be least concerned about that since Javed criticises virtually anything that moves in cricket and his own country men scarcely take him seriously now. All in all we seem to be headed for another rollicking ride of thrilling one day cricket this time.

What SA needs to think about is this: Following closely on the heels of the Indian Premier League or IPL even the Champions Trophy was shifted to SA. On the plus side, this is a great compliment to a nation that prides on its sporting infrastructure and cricketing ambience. It means that SA is good at organising events even at a short notice and the people are very keen to watch international cricketing action any time of the year. Apart from scheduled events they will get to host some more tournaments and that has its own foreign exchange or other gains. But on the minus side, it may become a destination for every event that faces difficulties. So it might become a common practice that if organising an event is difficult for a host country anywhere due to any reason, they always have SA to fall back on. And I don’t think South Africans at large or their cricket association, in particular, would want to be the crying shoulder for nations in organisational quagmires. Over-exposure might also bring about a fall in gate-money collections within the nation. So they need to think whether they want to be the stop-gap-arrangement every time a nation is unable to hold its own matches.

But for the time being let’s just enjoy the Champions Trophy 2009 in SA. Australia has started very strongly, as usual. Against everyone’s prediction, Pakistan too has made a solid start, winning comfortably against both, a second-string West Indies as well as a depleted India. The hosts along with the Lankans have gone wrong in their campaign. Surprise packages this time are England and New Zealand, whom no one had expected to start so well. And as for India, well, without the likes of Zaheer, Sehwag and Yuvi they don’t look formidable at all. To the extent that only a minor miracle can take them to the semis ……. and no, I am still not thinking of the finals. Predicting ODI tournament finals is the kind of thing that angels fear to do.