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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka will not only be the cynosure of the cricketing world at large come September when they host the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions trophy 12-nation tournament, but will be the venue where the controlling body for the game will introduce new technology to assist umpires and match referees.

Launching the ICC Champions trophy 2002 Sri Lanka at Hotel Taj Samudra last evening, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed revealed the many 'firsts' this tournament will be achieving. He said that it will be the first time a Test-playing nation is hosting this event, the first time it will be run on a different format, the first time the ICC elite panel of umpires and match referees will be involved in such an event, and the first time that the ICC trials for technology for umpires will take place.

The previous two ICC tournaments were held in Bangladesh (Dhaka) in 1998 when South Africa won, and in Kenya (Nairobi) in 2000 when New Zealand emerged victors.

These two tournaments were run on a knockout basis which saw some of the top countries being eliminated early. The present tournament will be run in four groups of three teams with the group leaders proceeding to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final).

Speed also revealed that the 2004 tournament will be held in England and the 2006 in India.

The ICC CEO said that over the years there has been a debate raging on technology with two former 'greats' Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar having differing views on the use of technology to assist ICC officials. "The ICC is going about it with an open mind. We don't want to make umpires become robots but are offering them the best use of technology to assist them in their decision-making. Everyone wants to see that the right decisions are made. If it is not successful we will discontinue it," said Speed.

What the ICC are trying to introduce is to give the field umpires the option to ask the third umpire where the ball pitched before giving an leg before decision. "We have to make sure it doesn't slow down the game too much," he said.

Speed said that the tournament afforded Sri Lanka an outstanding opportunity to witness all the top players from the 10 Test playing countries in action in Colombo. He revealed that an audience of 800 million people will be watching the event all over the world and that it will be covered by the world media comprising 500 persons.

Sports Minister Johnston Fernando thanked the ICC and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board for bringing the event to Sri Lanka. He said that in the next few months the country will be the centre of attraction with the Asian Athletic Championships, the International Rugby Sevens and the ICC Champions trophy being held here.

BCCSL interim committee chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya said there couldn't have been a better way to advertise to the world that a nation is being re-born from the ravages of a war by hosting this tournament successfully.

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