India crawl in through back door

Till late Thursday evening there was an air of suspended disbelief in cricketing circles in India. On Wednesday night the ICC issued a statement from Dublin, saying that the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in India next year, will have an all-new eight-team format.

According to this, the top six ODI teams in the world rankings as of April 1, 2006 will qualify. The remaining two spots will be fought for among teams ranked seven to 10, in a qualifying event.

The shocker was this. Currently (and for the past year or so) India have moved between seventh and eighth in the rankings. This meant that unless there was a dramatic turnaround in India’s form this year, they would not have qualified directly.

They would have to go through the embarrassment of having to qualify for a tournament on home ground. And of course, this being one-day cricket where Bangladesh have beaten India and Australia, there’s no predicting what could happen.

For a long time, the ICC spokespersons could not be contacted. Finally, late on Thursday, the ICC’s Mark Harrison, after seeming initially stumped himself, clarified to HT that it would be the “host country plus five top teams”, with the next four fighting it out for the remaining two spots.

India can rest easy then. Even if they continue their abysmal performance of last season, they are assured of a back-door entry to the Champions Trophy.