Five reasons why Champions Trophy 2013 was successful

MS Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain, receives the ICC Champions Trophy after beating England by five runs.

Long before the 2013 edition of Champions Trophy got underway, cricket aficionados were aware that this would be the last time this Championship is being held. The ICC said they wanted a tournament equivalent to the World Cup in all its formats and in accordance, it was reasoned that Champions Trophy would give way to World Test Championship from 2017.

The decision to scrap the Champions Trophy was not taken in haste. On one hand, there was already the ICC World Cup in 50-overs cricket, which is the flagship tournament in its format. On the other, it was also felt that the world cricket audience was increasingly choosing T20 and/or Tests as their preferred version and ODI was losing its relevance. However, the success of the Champions Trophy in this edition took everyone by surprise to the extent that ICC core committee thought of reviewing its own decision.

So the pertinent question is, what made this edition of Champions Trophy special? Given below are the five most prominent reasons for the same.

Short and crisp tournament: Unlike the last few editions of ICC World Cup or the annual domestic T20 extravaganza IPL, the Champions Trophy was a short and crisp tournament comprising of 15 matches and taking place within 17 days. Each team got to play a minimum of three and maximum of five matches. This was one of the most important reasons that enabled the tournament to sustain the interest of the viewers throughout. Also, by keeping the format as league stage was followed by semi finals and finals, it allowed a good team to make a comeback if they suffered a bad day in the office early in the tournament. Each game had a purpose and it ensured that supporters of no team felt that they were hard done by the format of the Championship.

A meaningful ODI tournament after a long hiatus: While the amount of cricket played in the shorter versions of the game have proliferated over the years (both international as well as domestic leagues), there are very few tournaments that offer something meaningful and relevant to most cricket lovers across the globe. In the last two months leading into this tournament there was a little amount of international cricket played. Even before that, perhaps the last mouth-watering clash in ODIs was between India and Pakistan dating back to January 2013. So when the Champions Trophy came calling, almost everybody had something to look forward to.

There was no overwhelming favourite: Another prominent reason that increased the interest quotient among the fans was the fact that there was no overwhelming favourite going into the tournament. While India is the reigning World Cup champion and number 1 ranked team in ODIs, their image of poor travellers deterred many from considering them as favourites. Similarly, England, the host nation, suffered an ODI series loss to New Zealand just days before this mega tournament started. And the ghost of chokers continued to unsettle fans who felt South Africa has the arsenal necessary to lift this trophy. Not knowing what to expect invariably lifts curiosity factor.

Different pitches provided different type of matches: Thanks to the rain and weather conditions, the pitches for different matches in the same ground behaved differently. For instance at Cardiff, both India and South Africa had a run feast as each team posted a total in excess of 300. A few days later, in the same venue, both New Zealand and Sri Lanka together failed to reach 300 runs. Similarly at the Oval, Pakistan and West Indies played out a low scoring thriller while a few days later the spectators in the same ground witnessed 293 runs being chased down by Sri Lanka with ease, against the bowling prowess of Anderson, Swann and company. Thus, the pitch and weather added an extra dimension of suspense in all the matches and upped the drama for the cricket viewing audience.

India’s attractive brand of cricket: On hindsight, this tournament would be remembered as India’s moment of glory. Across the globe, we have witnessed that wherever India plays, people from the Indian diaspora flock to the stadium. And when India plays the way they did in this event, it only increases the appetite of cricket hungry Indian fans. And this hunger found its way to either the cricket stadium where the game was played or on to the television channel where the match was beamed on our television sets. The brand of cricket played by this group of boys was flamboyant, aggressive as well as attractive. So even if they did not enjoy the mauling of their teams, they appreciated the flair of the Indian contingent.

It was only befitting that the final of the trophy was played between two nations- one of which gave birth to this game and the other that gave it a new lease of life.