India, Feb. 18 -- Apologies for starting on a slightly negative note. The Champions Trophy is a bad idea.

It was a good idea when the ICC decided to discontinue it realising that 50 overs cricket was losing its appeal with the fans, fans of even white-ball cricket. Why did they revive the Champions Trophy when there was every indication that 50 overs cricket wasn't resonating with fans anymore?

The answer to that is the 50 overs World Cup. The tournament has basically kept 50 overs cricket alive even when bilateral ODI cricket has decisively run its course.

The thing is, it's not really the 50 overs format that drew large hordes of fans to India for the World Cup in 2023 or to England in 2019 before that, it was how those World Cups pa...