Pakistan will not defend Champions Trophy any more

The reigning champion Pakistan will not be defending the Champions Trophy any more, as the event that is scheduled for 2021 is now being replaced by World T20.

Pakistan will now forever be remembered as champion, as International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to replace the 50-over tournament with World T20. "In all likelihood, the 2021 Champions Trophy will be a World T20," according to ICC CEO David Richardson.

Even before the completion of Champions Trophy 2017, the future of the multi-team event has been up in the air. There have been talks of scraping the trophy altogether but Richardson has now stated after attending ICC’s meeting that in all likelihood the 2021 50-over tournament will be World T20.

It was reported earlier that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would resist any attempt from the ICC to scrap the 2021 Champions Trophy in India, replacing it with a World T20 instead.

The BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry said that doing away with Champions Trophy would result in a loss of approximately $30 million to BCCI coffers.