Cricket Betting News | Time to question the ICC Champions Trophy

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There is many a view that the ICC champions trophy holds little value as there is so much cricket and one day cricket that it may only be getting in the way and all it does is increase the coffers of the sportsbook gaming industry.

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By the time the ICC Champions Trophy grinds to a halt on November 5 after the best part of a month's cricket, it's likely that most of the England team will be wishing they had followed Marcus Trescothick's lead and never boarded the plane to India in the first place. Of course, given their current form, the squad will certainly be back a week earlier at the end of the qualifying stages, but that's rather by the by. The point is that the ICC Champions Trophy has become almost entirely pointless.

When it first kicked off in 2000 the International Cricket Council billed its new tournament as a chance for the smaller countries to play against the more established Test sides and - as a declaration of intent - held the first competition in Kenya. And that was just about the last that anyone heard of the underdogs as New Zealand went on to beat India in the final. The 2002 tournament was played in Sri Lanka with the trophy shared between the home team and India; the 2004 competition was held in England and won by the West Indies.

The only possible surprise is that Australia has never featured in the final, though that only really confirms the tournament's worthlessness. If the Aussies can't be fired up, then it really isn't a trophy worth winning. It's not so hard to see why each country's cricket board still bothers to send a team, mind, because it's money for old rope. With guaranteed revenues from sponsors, advertising and TV rights - not to mention a huge betting industry in the subcontinent to feed - everyone gets a healthy whack just for turning up.

That's all this competition is: another cash cow in a lucrative sporting marketplace. Not that there's anything wrong with making money per se though, needless to say the countries, such as the associate members, Bangladesh and the West Indies, that could really do with the extra cash don't get any more - and often get substantially less - than those that are already loaded, such as England, Australia and South Africa. But if cricket wants to maintain any credibility and integrity, then making money has to appear to be subservient to the spirit of the game.

With the World Cup - cricket's serious one-day tournament - just six months away, the Champions Trophy has even less value than in previous years. Who will remember the winner in two years' time? Come to that, who could remember who won it two years ago before I reminded you? The ICC should kill the tournament before it becomes even more of a joke and the Test-playing nations should treat it with the indifference it deserves by sending their second-best squads. There again, that's precisely what England seems to be doing anyway.

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Time to question the ICC Champions Trophy

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