ICC Champions Trophy Rescheduled in September 2009

ICC Champions Trophy, which was postponed last month, has been rescheduled now. International Cricket Council (ICC) has revealed the new date of the tournament on the second and final day of ICC Board meeting in Dubai today. The board has decided that ICC Champions Trophy will be held from September 24 to October 5 in 2009. The tournament was supposed to take place last month in Pakistan, but ICC had to postpone the tournament after a number of cricket playing countries revealed their concern over the security situation of Pakistan following a number of bomb blasts.

However, ICC has not taken any decision if the tournament will take place in Pakistan. ICC will decide over the issue of the tournament venue after India’s tour of Pakistan in January 2009. ICC has also decided that the tournament will take place in one city; not in various venues. The duration of the tournament has also been reduced from 17 to 12 including a reserve day for the final. ICC president David Morgan said that ICC was very happy to be able to reschedule the tournament.

Express India reported:

“We are delighted to have slotted the ICC Champions Trophy into the FTP in 2009 thus maintaining the primacy of ICC events, and we now look forward to staging an outstanding, memorable event next September/October,” ICC President David Morgan said.

After ICC postponed the tournament until next year, there was an uncertainty over the tournament because many thought it would not be easy to put as big a tournament like this in next year’s FTP. In fact, there is a number of high-profile cricket series and tournaments including ICC Twenty20 World Championship. However, it is good news for the cricket fans that ICC has at last found some gap in its busy calendar to reschedule Champions Trophy.