CT, least favoured but money-spinner

Tournament, which also marks return of an ICC event in Pakistan after 1996, begins in Karachi on Wednesday

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @Chennai

AH, yes. It's that time of the decade when the International Cricket Council's (ICC) least favoured event is round the corner. It's still a money-spinner but the Champions Trophy has primarily been ridden with an inferiority complex for the majority of its existence. What is it, exactly? When it began, the ICC had it in developing cricketing communities around the world with the hope of getting new fans onside (the 1998 edition, for instance, was staged in Bangladesh without the host nation fielding a team).

What began as a snappy fast-food event to identify the best cricket team among the elite knockout matches, like cricket's answer to tennis, in a couple of venues in fewer than 10 days once every two years has grown into a product designed for TV, having at least one India v. Pakistan match with a solid undercard thrown in in the form of England v. Australia (both those matches are part of the upcoming event in Dubai and Pakistan).