Champions Trophy rises once again in dash for cash amid intrigue

India strike an early sour note after tournament favourites' refusal to play in Pakistan gives them a tactical edge

- Ali Martin

As the ICC Champions Trophy resurfaces in Pakistan this week, nearly eight years since the last one, folks will be forgiven for a few double takes, for feeling a bit like Ian Wright reuniting with his old teacher in that lovely viral clip, jaw dropped to the floor and gasping: "You're alive! Someone said you were dead!"

Although did anyone seriously think the Champions Trophy was toast? They say cockroaches and microbes would survive a nuclear apocalypse but there is every chance international cricket's 50-over tournoi would also spring up in the wasteland, glowing with radiation but still ready to stick its presumably mutated winners in those Miami Vice-style white blazers and deliver that sweet, sweet broadcast money.

That might be a bit harsh. The Champions Trophy has always been a fun, punchy affair, its eight editions to date throwing up seven different winners since it first appeared in 1998. Even South Africa have won one, although England have not. And while the full-scale 50-over World Cup has become a seven-week test of endurance, little brother does not muck about. Starting in Karachi today, the hosts taking on New Zealand, this one features 15 matches in just 19 days. Ideal.

It is just that in the T20 era - ie, the two World Cups era - the Champions Trophy has been hard to take as seriously given its diminished status and repeat resurrections. Neither edition from 2013 and 2017 in England were the original plan, rather fallback positions when thoughts of creating a World Test Championship with semi-finals were aborted. With a WTC now in the calendar, this latest return is solely about servicing a £3bn television deal that apparently must have at least one men's event a year.