Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar created something better than the Champions Trophy when they started the All-Stars series.

While we all thought it was just a junket, because it was a junket, they actually came up with something closer to the original concept of the Champions Trophy than the actual Champions Trophy. To understand why, you have to look at what both events exclude, and where both events are held.

When the Champions Trophy started, it was supposed to be a mini-World Cup held in non-Test-playing countries to grow the game. That is why the first two editions of it were held in Bangladesh and Kenya respectively. Yet the days of the Champions Trophy being held in non-Test countries are long gone.

Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Reddit Email Share

The last Champions Trophy was held in England, and the next one will be too.

Justifiably, the future of the Champions Trophy is always in a state of peril. Today, it is nothing but a cash cow.

Considering that the BCCI is questioning the costs of hosting the next Champions Trophy, it’s not even that good a cash cow.

Chances are you see flaws in the All-Stars series. Fair enough. It’s a diluted product. I wouldn’t part with my money to watch 50-year-old fast bowlers collapsing in to bowl. Yet while I go searching for YouTube videos of bowlers like Courtney Walsh at their peak, audiences in countries that never got to see them live do get to see them bowl in the flesh for the first time. The product may not be as good as the Champions Trophy, but at least it was held in a non-Test country, while the fact that matches were played on baseball fields added to its novelty.

The All-Stars series has overtaken the Champions Trophy in terms of locations, assuming it is ever played again.

Yet in terms of what it excludes, it also has an advantage. As the name implies, the Champions Trophy excludes countries and regions that are not the world’s best.



However, World Cups should look to include as many countries as practical in order to help grow the game. There’s no novelty in a tournament where the lesser teams are excluded because all the players from the best teams are regularly seen.

The All-Stars series looks to exclude those who aren’t the best players of a past time. Concentrating the best players of an era makes sense if it is in a location where the citizens did not get to see these players live because of their location. If the game wants the best players playing in countries such as America, as I believe it should, that means scheduling World T20 Cups to those areas. Since they are back to being played every two years, it makes it easier to sell the idea that every second tournament could be held in a non-Test country to grow the game.

There is also the point of scheduling.

Removing the Champions Trophy is but one small step in reforming cricket’s schedule into a sustainable model that maximises the chances of a team having their best representatives appear more often. Obviously, the same problem doesn’t apply to the retired players in the All-Stars series.

For all the criticism, the All-Stars concept is a better than what the Champions Trophy has become.