LONDON, March 21: Cricket is set to have a new global tournament with the creation of a Twenty20 “World Championship”. At a board meeting of the ICC officials agreed to the creation of an “invitational” Twenty20 World Championship in 2007 with an event in 2009 where “participation will be mandatory”, said an ICC statement.

Explaining the two-stage introduction, the ICC said: “Several members are strongly in favour of including a Twenty20 World Championship in the next round of ICC events while other members are not as enthusiastic.”—Agencies