ICC Champions Trophy
ICC Champions Trophy, comprising of one of the most popular One Day International (ODI) cricket tournaments in the world, came into being in the year 1998, as ICC KnockOut Tournament. Since its inception, the tournament has been organized every two years, though it was renamed as Champions Trophy in the year 2002. Till date, the trophy is regarded as being second in importance only to the Cricket World Cup.
In the initial stages, the participating teams in the Champions Trophy comprised of all the all ten full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Apart from that, the tournament also included two associate members (till 2004 only). However, from the 2009 tournament onwards, the participating teams would include only the eight highest-ranked ODI teams, as placed 6 months out from the tournament.
In Cricket Champions Cup Trophy also know as Mini Word Cup, the matches are organized over a period of around two weeks and no team is allowed to play with another more than once in the tournament. In the 2002 and 2004 tournaments, the teams went through a round robin tournament, which took place in four pools of three. It was the top team in each pool that went to the semifinal. After winning only four games (two in the pool, the semi-final and the final), a team could win the trophy.
In the next ICC CT (2006), there were ten teams, which played in two pools of four. The top two teams in each pool played the semi-finals. In effect, this meant that even if a team lost one match, it went right out of the tournament. Now, the cricket lovers are eagerly awaiting the next Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in South Africa, between 24th September and 5th October 2009.
