The International Cricket Council (ICC) has ditched the Champions Trophy 2021 which was supposed to take place in India, has been replaced it with World T20 format. The members of the ICC met in Kolkata and unanimously came to the conclusion. One World T20 tournament is already scheduled to happen in 2020 in Australia.

While addressing the press, the ICC’S Chief Executive David Richardson said the members had already decided about the World T20 tournament in February. The ICC is also eyeing the inclusion of cricket in the Olympics. "We always knew the T20 format is the vehicle for growing the game and transforming it from being a sport played by a few countries to a truly global sport," Richardson said. Efforts are on to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cricket in Olympics.

The ICC in a statement also made another important announcement that they would give T20I status to all its 104 members. “All member women's teams will be awarded T20I status on July 1, 2018, while all men's teams will be awarded T20I status on January 1, 2019, following the cut-off point for qualification to the ICC World T20 2020. Rankings for women and men will be introduced in October 2018 and May 2019, respectively," the ICC said in a statement.

Owing to the recent ball tampering incident between Australia and South Africa respectively, the ICC laid emphasis on the behaviour of the players. "There were clear direction received that we want to move towards stricter and heavier sanctions for ball-tampering and all other offences that are indicative of lack of respect for your opponent, for the game, the umpires, fans, media etc," Richardson said after the conclusion of the five-day ICC meeting here.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2018 11:32 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).