Did Champions Trophy give hope for cricket’s dying format?

CHENNAI: When the T20 format came into existence, the puritans of the game were worried about its impact on Test cricket, like how fans of longform journalists wrung – and still wrings – their hands over Insta reels and YouTube stories. The shorter, snazzier format did have an impact, but in unexpected corners.

The inaugural edition of the T20I World Cup in 2007 literally changed the landscape of the sport and its business, which left Test cricket largely unscathed but instead made the 50-over format get stuck in an existential limbo.

Test cricket kept its loyalists, drawn to its charm and tradition, while T20s became the sport’s fast-paced, cash-rich spectacle. Stuck in the middle, ODI struggled to stay relevant, except once every four years during the World Cup.

It was clearly a bid to revitalise the sagging fortunes of the 50-over format when the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced its decision to bring back the Champions Trophy in 2025 and 2029, the only two years without a major ICC tournament - 50-over or T20 World Cups - in the men’s event cycle till 2031.

As we go into the finale of the 2025 edition of the Champions Trophy where India facing New Zealand, it feels almost symbolic of the wider question hanging over the 50-over format: Did this tournament offer a pathway for the ODI format to reclaim its glory in the cricketing world, or is it forever destined to live in the shadow of its flashier younger sibling, T20I?

Crisis period

Since Australian media mogul Kerry Packer revolutionised cricket, ODI was the heartbeat of international cricket, the cash cow in the 90s till around mid-2000s. People couldn’t have enough of it, which was the reason ICC started another 50-over tournament besides the World Cup, though it was also claimed as an effort to take cricket to emerging territories.

The first edition was played in a pre-Test status Bangladesh and the next in Kenya. It even featured the United States in 2004. However, ICC saw that it couldn’t make an action-packed mini-World Cup prioritising Associate Nations and delivering commercial values.

Since 2004, no Associate Nations have appeared in the tournament. This year, even those who have won the trophy, like West Indies and Sri Lanka, failed to make the qualification cut.

Although these 19 days of the 2025 edition saw gripping contests, it didn’t exactly scream resurgence.

Scheduling woes, missing big names, and IPL effect

Part of the problem was timing. Placed after India’s gruelling Border-Gavaskar trophy and squeezed in before the IPL frenzy, the Champions Trophy didn’t have the space to dominate the cricket conversation.

Teams rushed through an ODI series as mere preparation, resting key players along the way.

Then on February 16, the IPL schedule dropped, and suddenly the focus was on the season-opener, a mouth-watering clash between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, and big announcements of franchise captains and teams heading to practice sessions.

To make things worse, several marquee players like Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Lockie Ferguson, Anrich Nortje and many others missed out due to injuries, personal reasons and workload concerns.

Dubai, not Lahore: The hosting conundrum

Adding to the intrigue was the venue itself. Pakistan is hosting an ICC event after 28 years. It meant spending money on refurbishing the stadiums in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. But the biggest selling point of the event, the clash between India-Pakistan, took place in Dubai, as its triumphant moment was overshadowed by geopolitics.

But an even bitter pill to swallow for the Pakistan fans will be to see the finals of the tournament, which they are supposed to be hosting, being played in Dubai as India ensured its qualification.

While playing in the same venue raised questions of India gaining an unfair advantage, it also created a tournament within a tournament.

Both South Africa and Australia went to Dubai before the semi-finals to see who would stay back and play India in the final, while the other (South Africa) took a three-hour flight back to Pakistan as India topped the table and was set to play the Aussies.

Empty seats, loud alarms for ODI cricket

One of the telling signs of ODI cricket’s struggle came in the form of empty seats. Fans not turning up for neutral games is understandable. But the hosts locking horns with New Zealand in the first game of the tournament – which was advertised as a ‘historic moment’ – and the home fans ignoring the hype leaving the majority of the stands empty wasn’t a good sign.

One may argue that excessive heat and it being a working day took a toll on turnout. But fans have gone to more extreme lengths to fuel their passion for the sport. A case in point is the Netherlands vs Sri Lanka match in the 2023 World Cup. Not every stand was filled, but a decent number of fans indeed turned up.

(Yes, that was a World Cup match, that too in India where the number of fans of the game is much more than the number of people rooting for individual teams.)

Some say ticket prices were one of the factors. But the tickets for matches involving host Pakistan started from PKR 2,000 (INR 1,200), while tickets for non-Pakistan games were priced from PKR 1,000 (INR 600). Not that expensive. But Pakistan’s early exit and three washed out games only made things worse.

The picture was different in Dubai where the prices are higher. Prices in Dubai were 250 AED (INR 6,000) for all other games and 500 AED for the India-Pakistan face-off. But even the India factor, which is known to pull crowds everywhere they go, could not fill the stadium for the clash against Bangladesh.

The finale did see a rush among the fans, and the tickets for the marquee event got sold out within two hours.

Did cricket deliver? Absolutely. But is that enough?

The tournament had some quality games and plot lines, starting from Australia’s great chase against England even without its core players. Another highlight was Afghanistan showing its quality and resilience by eliminating England and fighting for the top-four spot till the very end.

India’s campaign was dominant and continued its unbeaten run. The usual powerhouses delivered, but there was also a sense of deja vu as it felt like the last World Cup minus the stakes or prestige.

One of the metrics that defied this narrative was the viewership numbers. The India games shattered viewership records, with peak concurrency reaching a staggering 66.9 crore on JioHotstar during the semi-final clash against Australia. Earlier, the India-Pakistan match had touched a record viewership of 60.2 crore.

Although this paints a different picture, there was no doubt that there were eyeballs and interests that made cricket fanatics engage in conversations. But was it present only because of blockbuster clashes and big rivalries? The genuine appetite for 50-over games is still a debatable subject.

With lesser number of bilateral series these days, remaining relevant, except obviously during the World Cup cycle, is still a battle to fight.