Asian championship concept

Another old article of mine- enjoy!

Asian championship:

This last year's ranji trophy was a disaster. Almost half the matches in the group stage were drawn, and were very boring. The playoffs were even worse, which caused fans to stop watching totally. The domestic first-class tournaments in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are in a state just as bad,at least,as the ranji, and all of them are being rapidly eclipsed by t20 leagues.

One option could be to reduce the number of teams, similar to tournaments  in Australia and South Africa, but using that option would let a lot of talent go unnoticed, and so that plan will not work in Asia.

My solution is to set up a league comprised of all of these countries together, called the South Asia Champions Tournament.

In its first edition, the league will be made of 32 teams: 15 teams from India, 6 teams from Pakistan, 4 teams from Sri Lanka, 3 teams from Bangladesh, 2 teams from Afghanistan and one team each from Nepal and Malaysia. These 32 teams will be divided into 4 divisions of 8 teams each, as follows:

Plate Division	Challenger Division	Elite Division	Premier Division
Team 13 India	Team 9 India	Team 5 India	Strongest team India
Team 14 India	Team 10 India	Team 6 India	Team 2 India
Team 15 India	Team 11 India	Team 7 India	Team 3 India
Team 5 Pakistan	Team 12 India	Team 8 India	Team 4 India
Team 6 Pakistan	Team 4 Pakistan	Team 3 Pakistan	Strongest team Pakistan
Team 4 Sri Lanka	Team 3 Sri Lanka	Team 2 Sri Lanka	Team 2 Pakistan
Team 3 Bangladesh	Team 2 Bangladesh	Strongest team Bangladesh	Strongest team Sri Lanka
Strongest team Malaysia	Team 2 Afghanistan	Strongest team Nepal	Strongest team Afghanistan

Each team will play each other team in its group in a home fixture and an away fixture every season, with one match being played per week. All the matches will be 4 days long, and will have first-class status. For each win, the respective team will get 3 points, for a draw 1 point, and for a loss nothing. This will ensure the importance of winning, so that teams will actively try to win instead of working towards a dull draw. At the end of every season, the top two teams and the bottom two teams from each division will undergo a promotion-relegation system. This should create a wide interest in all the matches involved. International matches will be played as usual in this period, forcing each team to maintain depth in their squad. All the matches will be televised in every participating country.

Each team will be allowed one overseas player for the season. In addition, each team from the top division will be allowed one extra overseas player, who must come from a non-full member country. Outside of that, each player in a certain team must have full citizenship from the country that team belongs to.

This tournament will be run by the ACC, who, after every 5 years, will make changes to the tournament when they see the need. For example, if the ACC see that the team from Nepal is dominating the competition, they might decide to add another Nepal team, to restore interest. Also,if they see a country like China or Singapore improving, they might decide to add a team from there.

Underneath this competition, each country will run their own domestic league, out of which each team from this competition can select players, according to their region.

This setup will ensure that the domestic competition will be very competitive and exciting, while ensuring that no country involved will miss any budding talent. I hope the ICC/BCCI wake up some day, and preferably implement this suggestion.