ICC considers changes to Champions Trophy format

Ehsan Mani, the chairman of the ICC, suggested that the format of the Champions Trophy was likely to undergo changes in the near future to make the event more interesting. "Essentially, the name suggests what it is meant to be," Mani said in an impromptu press conference at Eden Gardens, as India closed in on victory against Pakistan in the second Test.

"Unfortunately, the last edition in England got diluted because too many weak sides played. We are looking at playing under a new format with only eight teams in the hunt so that we get to watch interesting cricket of a high quality. We are considering having the top five nations and the host nation making the grade directly, with two of the other four Test-playing nations coming through a qualifying competition."

The last tournament, held in late summer in England provided more one-sided matches than competitive ones, with teams such as USA getting thoroughly humiliated by the big guns.

Mani also denied that the ICC was putting pressure on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with regard to tax exemption for next year's Champions Trophy, currently allotted to India. "We have asked for tax exemption, there has been no threat from the ICC to the Indian Board," Mani clarified. "Discussions are still going on with the Indian finance ministry. I met the finance minister too last month. In case there is a problem, Pakistan are ready to play hosts - Pakistan is definitely an alternative."

After the recent triangular series in Australia, Pakistan had made a request for neutral umpires to stand at both ends in one-day internationals, as is the case in Tests, but Mani said it was unlikely that request would be entertained at the moment. "The idea is to have the best umpires officiating. But having two neutral umpires in one-dayers will harm the chances of the domestic umpires coming up. That's why we will persist with a domestic umpire too in one-day internationals."

Mani also defended umpires, who have come under some fire recently, and said that the ICC had proper systems in place in this regard. "We have remedial exams for umpires every year," Mani replied. "There is no age limit for retirement for umpires, but we have fitness and other tests too for the umpires. Most importantly, we scrutinise all their decisions regularly. There's a committee that twice a year checks to see if there is any specific problem with any umpire. That's how we found that one Sri Lankan umpire repeatedly had problems picking the leg-stump line. We asked him to go back to domestic cricket and sort the issue out."