It can be referred to as the ‘mini world cup’, as the ICC Champions Trophy involves the top eight ODI teams in the ICC ODI rankings, six months prior to the tournament. It promises an equal amount of thrill and action and a cricketing experience which one never forgets. After being inaugurated as the ICC Knockout Tournament in 1998, the ICC Champions Trophy will see curtains finally in 2013 with the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 being the last in the list.

All About The ICC Champions Trophy- Brief Description

The ICC Champions Trophy takes place every two years and the tournaments lasts for around two weeks. Basically, a team has to play only four matches to win the trophy. A single defeat can mean that the team is out of the tournament straightaway. Only in the first edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, a completely knockout based format was followed where the losing team was eliminated right there, after just one match. Number of teams is eight now.

All About the ICC Champions Trophy

ICC Knockout Tournament- 1998

The tournament was played in Dhaka with every team eliminated after losing a match. South Africa won the tournament after defeating West Indies in the final of the tournament. The venue was Bangladesh (which was not even a part of the tournament) because the ICC wanted to promote the game in nations where the game was not that popular.

Philo Wallace (221) of West Indies had the highest number of runs in the tournament, Sachin (141) had the highest individual score and Dravid and Sachin shared the highest partnership of 140 runs.

ICC Knockout Tournament- 2000

The tournament was played in Nairobi, Kenya and this time there were eleven participants with Kenya making it to the tournament. New Zealand won the tournament after defeating India in the finals by four wickets. It was a close contest and a Sourav Ganguly special hundred failed to save India thanks to some very good batting from Chris Harris and Chris Cairns. This is, till date, the only ICC tournament won by New Zealand.

ICC Champions Trophy 2002

The ICC Champions Trophy 2002 was held in Sri Lanka and there were a total of twelve teams participating in the tournament. The tournament holds a special record/stat with the final being washed out due to rain twice. Sri Lanka and India were declared joint winners of the trophy when two finals were washed out one after another and no result was obtained.

Virendra Sehwag (271) had the highest number of runs in the tournament and Muralitharan (10) had the highest number of wickets.

ICC Champions Trophy 2004

The tournament was held in England and is considered to be one of the most exciting tournaments in the history of cricket. Twelve teams participated with a new entry USA making it to the tournament for the first time ever. West Indies won the tournament by defeating England in the finals by two wickets.

Marcus Trescothick  (261) had the highest number of runs in the tournament and Andrew Flintoff (9) picked up the most number of wickets.

ICC Champions Trophy 2006

The tournament was held in India and was played under a new format and turned out to be a bigger success than the 2004 edition of the tournament.  Eight teams competed in the group phase: the top six teams in ODIs  and two teams – West Indies and Sri Lanka who qualifies by defeating Bangladesh and Zimbabwe by defeating them in a round-robin qualifying round.

The eight teams were then split into two groups of four in a round robin competition. Australia won the tournament by defeating W.Indies in the finals by 8 wickets.

Chris Gayle (474) was the highest run getter and also had the highest individual score – 133*. Jerome Taylor (13) had the highest number of wickets in the tournament and also picked up a hat-trick against Australia. The tournament saw a number of important records being broken and new records were set.

ICC Champions Trophy 2009

Scheduled to be played in 2008, the event was postponed because of the venue which was Pakistan. Many teams were not ready to play in Pakistan due to security reasons. Finally, in 2009, the venue was changed and South Africa hosted the tournament. Australia won the tournament again by defeating New Zealand in the finals by six wickets.

Ricky Ponting (288) was the highest run getter in the tournament and Wayne Parnell (11) was the highest wicket taker. Shane Watson smashed two important centuries, one in the semi-final against England and one a tournament-winner against New Zealand in the finals.

All About the ICC Champions Trophy- Records

Leading Run Scorers

Chris Gayle –  695

Sourav Ganguly- 665

Jacques Kallis – 653

Rahul Dravid – 627

Ricky Ponting – 593

Highest Individual Scores

Nathan Astle – 145

Andy Flower- 145

Sourav Ganguly – 141

Sachin Tendulkar- 141

Graeme Smith – 141

Leading Wicket takers

M.Muralitharan – 24

Kyle Mills- 22

Brett Lee- 22

Glenn McGrath- 21

Jacques Kallis – 20

Best Bowling Figures

F.Maharoof- 6/14

Shahid Afridi- 5/11

Makhaya Ntini- 5/21

Mervyn Dillon- 5/29

Jacques Kallis- 5/30