Champions League T20 Set To Be Relaunched; ICC Mulls Two-Tier Test Structure
There is a growing belief that the number of nations playing Test cricket might be capped. Only a handful of countries are able to generate revenue from the traditional format, and several others lack the infrastructure and systems to consistently build strong Test sides.
Among those part of the ICC's calendar working group are Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Richard Gould, and the ICC's newly-appointed chief executive Sanjog Gupta. The group is expected to present interim findings to the ICC board, headed by Jay Shah, before the end of this year.
Gupta, who earlier served as the head of sport at Indian broadcasting giant JioStar, was closely involved in a recent report on cricket's calendar compiled by the global players' body. He has also publicly stated that market demand will ultimately determine the volume of Test and international cricket played in the years to come.
"You have to make hard choices," Gupta said on the MCC's World Cricket Connects panel at Lord's in 2023, as quoted from The Sydney Morning Herald.
"And there are very clear indicators of what fans want. There is enough data to suggest what direction the game is going in," he added.
"If you continue to serve a product that no one wants, one - that product will continue to suffer; and, two - the ecosystem around the product will continue to suffer. Blackberry disappeared at some point. It was a device that all of us had, it was a device that all of us were in the bait of using, then it disappeared, and it was replaced by another product," he noted.
The original T20 Champions League, which began in 2008, ran until 2014. It was eventually discontinued after ESPN Star, who had paid a hefty $1 billion for broadcasting rights decided to pull out, having initially missed out on securing the rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Back then, the league was partnered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia, and Cricket South Africa. Interestingly, the broadcast revenue from that deal also helped fund the early years of the Big Bash League, which has since become a major commercial success in Australia.
Since those early days, the global T20 landscape has evolved massively. Today, many top players participate in multiple leagues throughout the year, sometimes even four or five different ones which will pose a major challenge for the Champions League's logistics and team selections.
Discussions are still ongoing regarding how revenue from the new tournament will be shared. There's also a parallel push for a different T20 tournament circuit, potentially funded by Saudi Arabia.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Magnus Carlsen's wife Ella: ‘Magnus says that Praggnanandhaa plays most similar to him'
Magnus Carlsen's admiration for the golden trio of Indian chess — world champion Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi — is well known. But now, Carlsen's wife Ella has revealed which player the world no 1 himself thinks plays the most similar brand of chess to him on the board. Ella also praised Arjun and Gukesh as very 'sweet', while talking about her first interaction with Gukesh and his father Rajinikanth. 'All three (Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun) are very different, but Magnus did say that Pragg plays more similarly to him, the most similar to him,' Ella revealed during a ChessBase India live stream during the recent Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Carlsen's admiration for Praggnanandhaa has been known since the FIDE World Cup in 2023, when Pragg had reached the final and lost to Carlsen. But not before he had taken down players like Arjun, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. After one of those conquests, while Pragg was walking off the stage, Carlsen had walked up to him to pat the Indian teenager on the back. He had later spoken about how at Offerspill, his chess club back home in Norway, there were kids being told by Pragg's long-time guru, RB Ramesh, that they should 'be like Pragg'. That was the catchphrase he had told Pragg after his win over Nakamura in the FIDE World Cup, which had made the Indian smile. Ella also praised Arjun. 'I saw this like clip of Arjun where he was asked what was his biggest fears growing up and he said 'ghosts'. I really liked that. I thought that was very cute. Arjun is very sweet, like when you talk to him in person. And then like over the board he's just a maniac. He's just out there hunting and going crazy,' Ella said. This corresponds with something Carlsen had told The Indian Express last year in an interaction. 'Arjun is just a complete mad man at the board. He wants to kill you in every single game. Has crazy preparation and plays extremely ambitiously and that's what makes him very dangerous,' Carlsen had told The Indian Express in May this year. Ella also spoke about the first time she had met and interacted with Gukesh and his father Rajinikanth. ChessBase India's Sagar Shah recollected that he and his wife were heading for dinner with Gukesh and his father Rajinikanth, when Magnus and Ella pulled up in a car and offered them lift. 'I spoke to Gukesh and his father at Weissenhaus for the first time. They were very sweet,' Ella said.
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Six Indians miss out on World University Games medal due to alleged gaffe by officials
India have won one medal, bronze, at the ongoing World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, but it is tinged with controversy. The medal came in mixed team badminton, with India losing to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals. Twelve players had been chosen to represent India but only six could play and stand on the podium. Alisha Khan, one of the players who were left out, wrote on her Instagram handle that half of the squad couldn't play because officials from the Indian team made a gaffe while submitting their names. 'They only submitted 6, forgetting the rest,' she wrote. 'As per FISU rules, 12 players are allowed—we were all eligible. We traveled, we trained, we sacrificed, and yet we were denied the chance to even participate.' Alisha further wrote that this was 'career sabotage' and not just mismanagement. 'We demand answers, accountability, and that our voices be heard. We didn't lose a match – we lost our right to even participate,' she wrote Alisha. Association of Indian University secretary Dr. Pankaj Mittal told PTI that the matter is being investigated but declined from making any further comments. 'We have been informed about this and the matter is being investigated,' he is quoted as saying by the news agency, which further reports that this wasn't just an error but stemmed from systematic irregularities. Saneeth Dayanand, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, Devika Sihag, Tasnim Mir, Varshini Viswanath Sri, and Vaishnavi Khadkekar were the six who competed in the mixed team event. India defeated Macau but lost to Hong Kong in the group stage, then beat the USA in the round of 16 and Malaysia in the quarterfinals before losing to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals. Rohan Kumar, Darshan Pujari, Aditi Bhatt, Abhinash Mohanty, Viraj Kuvale, and Alisha Khan were part of the 12-member squad but did not get to play. Pujari has written to the Badminton Association of India (BAI), demanding a thorough investigation. 'This level of mismanagement has caused significant emotional distress to the affected athletes, especially when Team India went on to win a historic medal at the Games. The players who were left out of the nomination list have been unfairly denied the chance to contribute on the field and be acknowledged as part of this achievement,' he wrote in his email, according to PTI. 'To date, there has been no accountability or concrete explanation provided by the managers. A mere apology cannot suffice at this level of international representation, where the careers, dreams, and morale of athletes are at stake. Through this email, I respectfully urge the concerned authorities to take this matter seriously, conduct a thorough review, and ensure that such avoidable and damaging incidents are never repeated in the future.'
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Tariff uncertainty continues: US team to visit India in mid-Aug, well after Aug 1 ‘hard deadline'
After Indian negotiators wrapped up another round of negotiations in Washington last week, a US team led by US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch is expected to visit India in mid-August to continue negotiations for a trade agreement, The Indian Express has learned. While India and the US have agreed on a wide range of tariff lines, the negotiations — which currently only involve market access for goods — are stuck over sensitive sectors such as agriculture and automobiles, which are key job creators in India. The new round of talks beyond the August 1 deadline comes amid growing suspense over whether India will face 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs starting August 1, as US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that August 1 is a 'hard deadline' for countries to begin paying tariffs. 'That's a hard deadline, so on August 1, the new tariff rates will come in… Nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they're going to start paying the tariffs on August 1,' Lutnick said in a television interview on Sunday. Notably, President Donald Trump's deadline for implementation of reciprocal tariffs has shifted from April 1 to July 9, and now to August 1. While Trump has reiterated that a deal with India is close, India could face tariffs of up to 26 per cent if both countries fail to reach an agreement. Government officials have maintained that India is aiming to sign a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by the end of the year, which would provide market access in labour-intensive sectors and ensure a significant tariff differential compared to its Asian peers. Lutnick also said that smaller countries — including those in Latin America, the Caribbean, and many in Africa — would face a baseline tariff of 10 per cent. 'The bigger economies will either open themselves up or they'll pay a fair tariff to America,' he said. Trade experts have pointed out that, despite being presented as trade 'agreements', Trump's deals do not meet WTO standards for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Under WTO rules, FTAs require mutual tariff reductions on a substantial share of trade. 'Under the Trump model, only the partner country lowers its Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) tariffs, while the US makes no reciprocal cuts. Trump lacks Fast Track Trade Authority from Congress to reduce MFN tariffs. Instead, he's offering to roll back only the 'Liberation Day' tariffs imposed in April under emergency powers — tariffs that a US federal court has already ruled unlawful. The case is under appeal, but the legal basis remains fragile,' the think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said. For India, those April tariffs added a 26 per cent surcharge on top of normal US tariffs. Even if a deal is struck, Indian exports may still face a minimum 10 per cent additional levy, making it a pressured compromise, not a true partnership, GTRI said in a report.
