Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced the decision to hold an additional ICC World T20 event in place of the Champions Trophy in 2021. The back-to-back editions of the World Twenty20 will be held in 2020 and 2021 in Australia and India, respectively. The ICC members have signed off a new Future Tours Programme (FTP) for 2019-2023 that incorporates these changes. “This provides opportunities for 16 teams to compete at a global level with a sub-regional, regional and global qualification process every two years, giving more regular cricket to more members,” read a statement issued by the governing body.

“We are committed to growing the game and T20 is the vehicle through which we’ll do this,” said ICC Chief Executive David Richardson. The ICC Board also gave green light to all Twenty20 matches between Members being awarded international status along with plans to introduce global rankings in the format. The final structure of the FTP (19-23), which received unanimous backing, includes the following:

ICC Cricket World Cup – 2019, 2023

ICC World T20 – 2020, 2021

ICC World Test Championship Final – 2021, 2023

World Test Championship

Cycle 1 – 2019-2021

Cycle 2 – 2021-2023

ICC Cricket World Cup Qualification League – 2020-2022

Published in Daily Times, April 27^th 2018.