A waste of time
Anyone else who thinks that six games, pitting Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies & Zimbabwe to find out who the best two are, is pretty pointless?
If the ICC had a cut-off of eight teams for the ICC Champions Trophy, why didn’t they just pick the first eight teams in the list and get the competition moving, rather than an extra stage?
At no point of time in the history of the ICC’s rankings have Bangladesh or Zimbabwe come anywhere close to the top 8.
Aside from the once-a-year superlative performance resulting in wins against Pakistan, India, Australia & Sri Lanka, Bangladesh has been pathetic. Zimbabwe has been equally bad, and the fact that it beat Bangladesh in a one-day series does nothing to indicate any sort of ability to play with the other higher-ranked teams.
The ICC Champions Trophy really ought to be called the ICC Champions Atrophy!
Cross-posted on Cricket 24×7.