| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
London: Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden wants the Champions Trophy to be scrapped as he feels it is meaningless to hold the eight-nation tournament along with a World Cup every four years.
"Why have the Champions Trophy (a 50-over tournament) when you've already got a 50-over World Cup?" Hayden wrote in his column for The Independent.
"There are strong lessons to be learned from the success achieved in other sports, such as the quadrennial cycle of football World Cup and UEFA European Championships.
"Cricket should follow this with a similar cycle of T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup. To maximise coverage these should be played in odd-numbered years - football major competitions, and the Olympics, are in even-numbered years. The Champions Trophy should be scrapped," he added.
Hayden said even the Twenty20 World Cup should not be held every second year.
"Playing the World Twenty20 every other year is too much," he said.
"There's too much cricket, too much of it is meaningless, and there are just too many different formats," he added.
Hayden said Test cricket can be rejuvenated by a World Championship and by avoiding matches between heavyweights and minnows.
"If Test cricket is to be the number-one form of the game, the public, players and financial backers around the world must be engaged.
"I propose the establishment of a World Series, or a 'World Test Championship' if you like, which would be on a rolling calendar with finals every two years," he said.
"When a team like Australia play a team like Bangladesh in a Test series, you've got problems. It can't be fun for the underdogs and it's no challenge for the favourites. Just as importantly, it's not a good spectacle.
"In my Test World Championship, I've left (Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) out. It won't be popular, but I believe it's necessary," he added.
He said the scheduling conflict between the Indian Premier League and international cricket should also end.
"The main point of conflict between the IPL and the established game is in scheduling, particularly the subsequent clash of players' contracts. This can be avoided in the future by creating a two-month window each year - I'd hold it in March and April - when other forms of the game take a back seat - no Tests, no World Cup cricket and so on," he said.
