The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ICC top brass unveils Champions Trophy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 21, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

ICC top brass unveils Champions Trophy

MUMBAI, JULY 20. International Cricket Council President, Ehsan Mani, and Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, unveiled the Champions Trophy here on Tuesday.

The trophy was designed and manufactured in London by official Crown Jewellers Asprey. The trophy stands 18 inches tall and 5.5 inches at its widest point and weighs close to eight kg. The trophy is of the same design used for the 2002 edition in Sri Lanka.

Two of ICC's global commercial partners, LG and Pepsi, would make arrangements to take the trophy to 18 cities in India before it travels back to England.

"The event will begin on September 10. Tickets for the India-Pakistan match have already been sold out. The tickets for the final, scheduled to be held at The Oval on September 25, too have been sold out,'' ICC president Ehsan Mani said.

Mani also announced that the prize money at this year's event would be higher than the prize money offered during the 1999 World Cup.

The total prize money on offer is $1,150,000 with the winning team taking home $3,00,000.

The two semifinal winners would also get $1,25,000 each while each winner in the group stage would receive $50,000.

D/L for reserve day matches

The Duckworth-Lewis method of deciding the results in rain-ruined one-day matches would come into the picture only in matches spilling over to the second day of the Champions Trophy.

``This year's Champions Trophy tournament will see matches being continued on the second day (reserve day) from the stage where they are abandoned on the opening day in case of weather interruptions,'' Ehsan Mani said.

``A reserve day has been allotted to each of the 15 matches in 16 days so that matches can be continued from where they were interrupted by weather unlike in Sri Lanka (in 2002) where on both the days of the final rains came and spoiled the show,'' he said.

Mani hoped there would be less interruption by inclement weather during this year's championship in England.

``Studies of weather pattern in England in the last 15 years have shown that there is less rain and more sunshine in September,'' he added.

``This is a better system and we are hopeful we will have good weather in England (during the September 10-25 tournament),'' ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said.

`No problem over contract issue'

Meanwhile, the ICC has categorically ruled out any problems arising out of Player Contracts terms during the Champions Trophy.

``There would be no problems over the players' contract issue. After the last World Cup, we at the ICC and our global commercial partners have come together and sorted out the issue,'' ICC chief Ehsan Mani told reporters.

Indian players were in the eye of a contract row during the last edition of the tournament in Sri Lanka and in last year's World Cup due to their personal endorsement contracts, which clashed with the interests of the world governing body's commercial partners.

The problem was temporarily resolved after which the players took part in the tournaments, but the ICC later withheld monetary dues of the Board of Control for Cricket in India after the 2003 World Cup in South Africa because of the pressure from its commercial partners. — PTI

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