After much debate, inevitable given that India and England represent a quarter of the teams participating, the Champions Trophy has thrown itself up for examination. It has been packaged well, is meant to have no uncompetitive matches (though the West Indies will test that premise) and to be fair to them the ICC have put everything behind it. One-day cricket is now in a buyer’s market and that means the product has to be tailored for the consumer. Realising that is progress in itself.

Now the viewer and the spectator will sit in judgement and that is how it should always be. They are pretty uncomplicated fellows and they don’t really care much for either heritage or the future. They will look at the offering, if it’s good they will buy it, otherwise they will move on. And this tournament will give us a very good idea of which way they are going.

So will they head towards the Champion’s Trophy or towards the bilateral one-day game which many believe is most under siege. I am not as sure. Long, meandering, bilateral one-dayers are in danger but remember every bilateral game is a home game for somebody. The Champion’s Trophy will have a lot of neutral contests and if at the end we discover that only home games draw the crowds, then the future of single venue tournaments might well be thrown into jeopardy. We might, to be fair, also discover that one-day cricket needs an occasion like the Champion’s Trophy or a World Cup and that, if it happens, will please a lot of people in the ICC. It’s an interesting period and I think we must hold our verdict till the tournament is over. The first indicators are less than ten days away.

... contd.