ICC Champions Trophy

The ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), second in importance only to the Cricket World Cup. It was inaugurated as the ICC Knock Out Tournament in 1998 and has been played approximately every two years since, its name was changed to the Champions Trophy in 2002. The number of teams competing has varied over the years; originally all the ICC's full members took part, and from 2000 to 2004 associate members were also involved. Since 2009, the tournament has only involved the eight highest-ranked ODI teams as of six months prior to the tournament. Despite positive responses to the 2013 tournament and earlier press speculation, the ICC confirmed that the 2013 Champions Trophy was to be the last, with its place in the cricketing calendar taken by a new ICC World Test Championship.

ICC Champions Trophy
Administrator	International Cricket Council
Format	One Day International
First tournament	1998
Last tournament	2013
Tournament format	Round robin (current) Knock-out (previously)
Number of teams	8
Current champion	India
Most successful	India  Australia (2 titles each)
Most runs	Chris Gayle (791)
Most wickets	Kyle Mills (28)

Format

The Champions Trophy differs from the World Cup in a number of ways. The Champions Trophy takes place every two years, while the World Cup is held every four years. The matches in the Champions Trophy are held over a period of around two weeks, while the World Cup can last for over a month. For 2002 and 2004, twelve teams played a round-robin tournament in four pools of three, with the top team in each pool moving forward to the semi-final. A team would play only four games (two in the pool, semi-final and final) to win the tournament. In 2006, eight teams played in two pools of four, with the top two teams in each pool playing in the semi-finals. Losing even a single match would potentially mean elimination from the tournament.

The format used in the Knock Out tournaments differed from the formats used in the Champions Trophy. The competition was a straight knock out, with no pools and the loser in each game being eliminated. Only 8 games were played in 1998, and 10 games in 2000.

Results

The first two tournaments, in 1998 and 2000, were intended to raise the profile of the game in the host nations, Bangladesh and Kenya.

Year 1998 ICC Knock Out tournament

Won by  South Africa

All of the matches in the 1998 tournament were played in Bangladesh at Bangabandhu National Stadium. The tournament was won by South Africa who beat West Indies in the final. Philo Wallace of West Indies was the leading run scorer in the tournament of scoring 221 runs. This was the first and till date the only ICC event won by South Africa.

Year 2000 ICC Knock Out tournament

Won by  New Zealand

All of the matches in the 2000 tournament were played in Nairobi, Kenya. There were three qualifying matches before the Quarter Finals, involving Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and England. The tournament was won by New Zealand who beat India in the final. Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly (348) was the leading run scorer in this tournament. Venkatesh Prasad (8) was the leading wicket taker. This was the first and till date the only ICC event won by New Zealand.

2002 ICC Champions Trophy

No result

The 2002 ICC Champions Trophy was held in Sri Lanka, and the 12 teams included Netherlands and Kenya. The final between India andSri Lanka was washed out twice to leave no result. First, Sri Lanka played 50 overs and then India played two overs before the rain caused interruption. The next day, Sri Lanka again played 50 overs and India played eight overs. In the end India and Sri Lanka were declared joint winners. The teams played 110 overs, but there was no result. Virender Sehwag (271) had the highest number of runs in the tournament and Muralitharan (10) had the highest number of wicket.

2004 ICC Champions Trophy

Won by  West Indies

ICC CT 2004 was more like a knockout series where teams if losing even one game at league stage are out of the tournament. 12 teams divided into 4 groups and table topper from each group played semi's. ENG defeated AUS in 1st semi-final to make it 4th appearance in final of an ICC event. PAK lose to WI in second semi final which was a low scoring game. In the final game WI team under Lara's leadership pulled off a tense match with the help of wicket keeper C Browne and tailender's Ian Bradshaw.

2006 ICC Champions Trophy

Won by  Australia

The eight teams were then split into two groups of four in a round robin competition. While Australia and West Indies qualified from Group A, South Africa and New Zealand qualified from Group B for the semifinals. Australia and West Indies reached the final defeating New Zealand and South Africa, respectively. In the final, Australia beat West Indies by 8 wickets to win the trophy for the first time. The venues for the tournament were Mohali, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Mumbai.The 2006 ICC Champions Trophy was held in India with the final on 5 November 2006. A new format was used. Eight teams were competing in the group phase: the top six teams in theICC ODI Championship on 1 April 2006, plus two teams chosen from the other four Test-playing teams Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, chosen from a pre-tournament round robin qualifying round. West Indies and Sri Lanka qualified ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

2009 ICC Champions Trophy (Postponed from 2008)

Won by  Australia

In 2006, the ICC selected Pakistan to host the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy.

On 24 August 2008 it was announced that the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan has been postponed to October 2009 as several countries were reluctant to visit Pakistan for security reasons. However due to the crowded international schedule around that date, and concerns about whether the security situation would have changed by that time, there was widespread scepticism whether it would actually take place in 2009.

On 16 March 2009, an announcement was made that the ICC has recommended that the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy be moved from Pakistan to South Africa.

On 2 April 2009, Cricket South Africa confirmed that it would host the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy from 24 September to 5 October. The Board accepted recommendations from the ICC that Liberty Life Wanderers (Johannesburg) and Supersport Park (Centurion) be the host venues. The details of SA’s hosting of the Champions Trophy were ironed out at a meeting between CSA’s CEO Gerald Majola and ICC general manager – Commercial, Campbell Jamieson. Majola confirmed that the six warm-up games will be played at Benoni’s Willowmoore Park, and Senwes Park in Potchefstroom.

Australia beat England by 9 wickets in the 1st semi-final, and New Zealand beat Pakistan by 5 wickets in the 2nd semi-final, to set up a final that saw Australia beat New Zealand by 6 wickets, in 45.2 overs.

2013 ICC Champions Trophy

Won by  India

England and Wales hosted the 2013 Champions Trophy. This was the last edition of the tournament. England became the only country to host the Champions Trophy twice. ICC World Test Championship has been postponed to 2017 at the earliest amidst earlier reports. India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and England qualified for the semi-final stage. India and England won their respective games comprehensively and the final between the two took place on 23 June 2013. India beat England by 5 runs at Edgbaston. Ravindra Jadeja was selected as the man of the match and he also received the "Golden Ball" for taking the most wickets. Shikhar Dhawan received the "Golden Bat" for scoring the most runs in the series and was also the man of the series for his outstanding performance. This was India's second time winning the trophy, after 2002. MS Dhoni became the first skipper to win all the major ICC trophies.

Records

National team	Final appearances	Winners	Runners-up	Years won	Years runners-up
India	3	2	1	2002, 2013	2000
Australia	2	2	0	2006, 2009	–
West Indies	3	1	2	2004	1998, 2006
Sri Lanka	1	1	0	2002	–
South Africa	1	1	0	1998	–
New Zealand	2	1	1	2000	2009
England	2	0	2	–	2004, 2013

Bowling

Leading wicket takers

Player	Matches	Wickets	Runs
Kyle Mills	15	28	483
Muttiah Muralitharan	17	24	484
Lasith Malinga	13	22	587
Brett Lee	16	22	591
Glenn McGrath	12	21	412

Best bowling figures in an innings

Player	Opponents	Overs	Maidens	Wickets	Runs	Year
Farveez Maharoof	West Indies	9.0	2	6	14	2006
Shahid Afridi	Kenya	6.0	1	5	11	2004
Makhaya Ntini	Pakistan	6.0	2	5	21	2006
Mervyn Dillon	Bangladesh	10.0	4	5	29	2004
Jacques Kallis	West Indies	7.3	0	5	30	1998
Jacob Oram	United States	9.4	1	5	36	2004
Ravindra Jadeja	West Indies	10.0	2	5	36	2013
Glenn McGrath	New Zealand	7.0	1	5	37	2002
Shayne O'Connor	Pakistan	9.2	0	5	46	2000
Wayne Parnell	New Zealand	8.0	0	5	57	2009

Batting

Highest run scorers

Player	Matches	Innings	Not out	Runs	High score
Chris Gayle	17	17	2	791	133*
Mahela Jayawardene	22	21	3	742	84*
Kumar Sangakkara	22	21	3	683	134*
Sourav Ganguly	13	11	2	665	141*
Jacques Kallis	17	17	3	653	113*
Rahul Dravid	19	15	2	627	76
Ricky Ponting	18	18	3	593	111*
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	16	16	5	587	74
Sanath Jayasuriya	20	20	2	536	102*