The Champion’s Trophy has been around for nearly 20 years now, in its various rebirths, and has taken a lot of blows on the way. But now that the tournament has reached its maturity, it is time to give this competition the love it deserves. In its adolescent years, the tournament followed a knockout format, where teams played each other in a knock out situation, and loosing meant packing your bags and going home.
Since 2000 the tournament has seen some bad phases, in 2002 the tournament was named the champions trophy and this rebirth saw the tournament not being able to produce a champion due to its feckless scheduling in the midst of a Sri Lankan monsoon. Most games were rain washed, leaving no real winner. After that each year, Champions trophy had more indignities piling up, with rain washed tournaments to slow pitches, the mini world cup as it was known was going out of fashion. In 2007, like an arrow through the heart, a spoilt little brother, the World T20 bursts on to the scene, making champions trophy looks like an era going out of the window, but it cling on. This year we head into the either edition of The Champions Trophy which to all intents and purposes, is a carbon copy of its predecessor, same British grounds, same 50 over cricket and same time of the English season, all combined, make a perfect formula for an amazing tournament. It is one which has had a prickly past, but one that promises the most in the 50 over format.