ICC Champions Trophy is the second most prestigious tournament organised by International Cricket Council after World Cup. ICC Cricket World Cup has a bigger profile, and the greats are considered as legends when they win the coveted World Cup title (even Sachin had to live this dream finally). But that tournament is certainly burdened by the mandatory involvement of teams from the lesser cricketing nations. The Champions Trophy has no such pointless distractions. And the competition is limited to the finest cricketing nations in the world. Here are the five lesser known facts about the Champions Trophy.
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The 2017 Champions Trophy is scheduled to take place from June 1 to June 18 in England and Wales. The top eight ODI playing nations which qualified on the basis of the ICC rankings as on 30 September 2015 will battle it out for the ‘Mini World Cup’ Trophy. India is the defending champions of the tournament, as they beat hosts England in the last edition held in 2003. And BCCI after enacting a high drama finally decided to send full strength Team India to retain the title. Here are some surprising facts about the tournament.
Birth of Champions Trophy
In the late 1990s the International Cricket Council (ICC), then headed by influential Indian business tycoon Jagmohan Dalmiya, came up with the philosophy of pumping additional money into the coffers of the game’s governing body by spreading the game to emerging cricketing nations between the quadrennial World Cup, the showpiece event of the ICC. Hence the ICC Champions Trophy was launched with the first two editions titled as the ICC Knockout events, although the first was officially named as the Wills International Cup.
Reincarnation of Champions Trophy
Prior to the commencement of 2013 edition, the cricket’s parent body ICC had announced scrapping of this tournament post 2013 games and replacing it with a new ICC World Test Championship. This Test Championship was slated to be played among the top four ranked teams in Test format. The final was proposed to be a “timeless” Test where the teams would have been allowed to bat unlimited overs (until Rahul Gandhi would have decided to leave politics). However, in January 2014, the decision was reversed.
India, the most successful team in Champions Trophy
India has the best winning percentage in Champions Trophy that is 71.42. India has also won the championship twice, but in 2002 , they were declared joint winners with Sri Lanka as final could not be completed due to rain. Sourav Ganguly has been India’s star performer with the bat in this ICC tournament amassing 665 runs from 13 matches. 2000 Champions Trophy event was marked by the memorable debuts of Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan.
India won Champions Trophy in 2013 where Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja made life difficult for batsmen, while Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma combined well to make it five wins in five for the Men in Blue. The tournament saw one of the most entertaining moments when MS Dhoni removed his wicket keeping gloves during India’s semifinal win over Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, he even took a wicket.
Anomalies do exist
Champions Trophy remains the only ICC event where Pakistan has managed to beat India. India has met Pakistan thrice and lost on two occasions. But India has won the latest encounter in 2013.
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Champions Trophy is the only multination ICC tournament South Africa has ever won. South Africa won the inaugural edition of the tournament held in Kenya in 1998. They have been unable to win the ICC World Cup or the T20 World Cup.
England, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the full members of ICC, have never won the title. England are the only team to have made the final twice without winning a title. The English side made it to the summit clash in 2004 and 2013.
Up to 2006, the Champions Trophy was held every two years. The 2008 Champions Trophy which was supposed to be held in Pakistan moved to South Africa in 2009 due to security reasons. From then on it is held every four years like the World Cup.
The Fighting Arenas
The Champions Trophy 2017 matches will take place at three grounds across England and Wales over the first half of June – The Oval in London, Edgbaston in Birmingham and the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales.
The Kia Oval in Kennington is one of the most iconic cricket grounds in the world. Formed in 1945, it is a home ground of the Surrey County Cricket club. It was at the Oval that Don Bradman made that fateful duck in his final test innings in 1948.
Edgbaston is home to the Warwickshire County Cricket Club since 1894 and is considered as the best ground in England. Interestingly, India has happy memories of the ground as they have recorded a five-run victory over England in the rain-curtailed final of the 2013 Champions Trophy. This venue also witnessed the scene of Brian Lara’s world record of 501 not out in 1994 for Warwickshire against Durham.
The Sophia Gardens in Cardiff is the home of Glamorgan County Cricket Club since 1995 when they signed a 125-year lease to make it their permanent base. One of the most famous matches it hosted was when Bangladesh upset the mighty Australians by five wickets in the 2005 NatWest series. Bangladesh would be raring to make some impact here in this tournament as they are making a comeback after 2006 at the expense of West Indies.
