The Mini World Cup is round the corner So excited for it to start - so lets get things rolling here!!


Points Table (As on 19th Oct)



Player of the series front-runners:

1. Tharanga (SL): 2 - Runs:215
2. Chris Gayle(WI): 2 - Runs 145, Wickets - 4
3. JE Taylor(WI): 1 - Wickets 4 against AUS
4. Abdur Razzaq(PAK):1
5. Mahroof (SL):1
6.Munaf Patel(IND):1
7. Stephen Fleming(NZ):1


Schedule & Results

October 2006 Sat 7 1st Qualifying Match - Bangladesh v Sri Lanka SL Beat BAN
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh

Sun 8 2nd Qualifying Match - West Indies v Zimbabwe WI Beat ZIM
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

Tue 10 3rd Qualifying Match - Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe SL Beat ZIM
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

Wed 11 4th Qualifying Match - Bangladesh v West Indies WI Beat BAN
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Fri 13 5th Qualifying Match - Bangladesh v Zimbabwe BAN Beat ZIM
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Sat 14 6th Qualifying Match - Sri Lanka v West Indies SL Beat WI
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Sun 15 1st Match - India v England IND Beat ENG
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Mon 16 2nd Match - New Zealand v South Africa NZ Beat SA
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Tue 17 3rd Match - Pakistan v SL PAK beat SL
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Q1 qualifier

Wed 18 4th Match - Australia v WI WI Beat Aus
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Q2 qualifier

Fri 20 5th Match - New Zealand v SL
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Q1 qualifier

Sat 21 6th Match - Australia v England
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Tue 24 7th Match - South Africa v SL
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Q1 qualifier

Wed 25 8th Match - New Zealand v Pakistan
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh

Thu 26 9th Match - India v WI
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Q2 qualifier

Fri 27 10th Match - Pakistan v South Africa
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh

Sat 28 11th Match - England v WI
Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Q2 qualifier

Sun 29 12th Match - India v Australia
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh

<a name="November 2006">November 2006 Wed 1 1st Semi Final - TBC v TBC
Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh

Thu 2 2nd Semi Final - TBC v TBC
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Sun 5 Final - TBC v TBC
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

A brief history ...

The Champions Trophy was the brainchild of Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was ICC president in the late 1990s. It had a dual aim of spreading the game to emerging nations and raising money for the ICC in between World Cups, thus enabling it to pump more cash into those fledgling cricket countries. The first tournament, labelled as a mini World Cup, was staged in Dhaka in October 1998 and raised more than £10 million. The second, in Nairobi, was a commercial success although the crowds stayed away. By the time the 2002 event was held - and there was disquiet as it was so close to the World Cup five months later - the idea of playing in developing nations had been ditched (in fairness, options had already been exhausted) and as revenue-generation was the main raison d'etre, it needed to be in one of the main countries as this allowed the format to be expanded. In 2004 the jamboree moved to England and it became clear the format of group games led to too many meaningless games. By the time the 2006 tournament in India came into view, the event was under fire from some quarters, and at one time there were even hints that India might decline to take part in 2008.

1998-99 Bangladesh
Winners: South Africa
Runners-up: West Indies
No. Countries 9




All matches were played at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka, but the slow and low pitches produced some poor cricket. Severe flooding threatened to cause the whole show to be moved to India, and it only got the go-ahead at the 11 th hour. As it was, Dhaka was the third choice after Disneyworld (Florida) and Sharjah. Some sides were less than enthusiastic about the whole venture - England got dispensation to send a virtual 2nd XI - but that was more than compensated for by massive crowds which flocked to game, even though Bangladesh weren't invited to their own party. The knockout format, with eight matches compressed into nine days, fuelled the locals' excitement. South Africa won by beating West Indies in the final, although Wisden noted that "it was thus a tournament in which the winning really was less important than the taking part." However, not one journalist from either finalist attended the match.

2000-01 Kenya
Winners: New Zealand
Runners-up: India
No. Countries 11

The second event included Bangladesh - on the verge of joining the Test-playing countries - and hosts Kenya. The format remained a straight knock-out - and the Nairobi Gymkhana, which had received a million-dollar refurbishment ahead of the event, hosted all games. But unlike Dhaka, local interest was poor and crowds were dismal. "The only sadness was the lack of local interest, and the suggestions of match-fixing that subsequently surfaced in the Anti-Corruption Unit's report to the ICC," reported Wisden. "While India's matches attracted decent numbers of ex-pats, indigenous Kenyans were noticeable by their absence throughout. Critics blamed high ticket prices (up to £20) and excessive bureaucracy. One thing was certain: the tournament should have done more to promote cricket in East Africa." New Zealand surprisingly beat India in the final, thanks to Chris Cairns's 102, but it was a one-off success - their next 13 ODIs produced 11 defeats and just one win.

2002-03 Sri Lanka
Winners: India/Sri Lanka
No. Countries 12

The proximity of the World Cup, less than five months later, poor organisation and a revised format that meant most group matches were all but pointless, took the sheen off the event, and more surprisingly the public stayed away despite low ticket prices. The pitches were slow and low - which was anything but good preparation for South Africa - and with the monsoon looming, the heat and humidity were intense. The ICC also decided to use the tournament to experiment with technology (Pakistan's Shoaib Malik became the first victim of an lbw decision deferred to the third umpire). While it was useful for lbws (where the only referral was whether the ball pitched outside leg stump) it proved almost useless for disputed catches. The ICC abandoned the trial soon after. Sri Lanka and India only sent full-strength sides after contract disputes were settled at the last minute, but Sri Lanka made it to the final after a popular win over an unpopular Australia. However, they shared the trophy with India when both attempts to start the final were washed out by tropical storms. "In the end, the two false starts summed up the tournament," Wisden concluded. "Half-baked and inconclusive."

2004 England
Winners: West Indies
Runners-up: England
No. Countries 12

The growing weariness with the event (Wisden described it as "the tournament that veers between being the second most important in world cricket and a ludicrous waste of time") was unchecked with it being held so late in season that cricket was all but forgotten by the media. The continuation with the format that had been so flawed in Sri Lanka did not help, and the inclusion of the USA - a ragbag of past-its and never-weres - just added to the feeling that this was a pointless exercise. Apart from the final and India's matches, attendances were again dire. "In keeping with the strained relations between the ICC and the hosts, the ECB, recriminations were muted but inevitable," wrote Matthew Engel. "It is not easy to apportion blame precisely for this fiasco, but between them the two governing bodies constituted a deadly combination." Those spectators not put off by high ticket prices, early starts and autumn weather experienced the ICC's ambush-marketing policing in its full glory as drinks and t-shirts were confiscated. The ridiculous nature of the corporate stranglehold was underlined by the fact that punters could not buy England shirts at club shops because their sponsors - Vodafone - were rivals of one of the official "partners". The final, which witnessed a remarkable comeback by West Indies to defeat England in almost pitch darkness, offered scant consolation after such a poor competition. "The main memories will be of cold and wet, of organisational disasters," Wisden concluded, "and of the general sense of a doomed competition that did cricket far more harm than good, all of which was obvious and avoidable."

© Cricinfo

Thanks for the update!

It seems a bit strange to me, that SL, WI get to play so many matches while other teams still have to play one!

Hair out of Champions Trophy

Martin Williamson

September 28, 2006

After weeks of speculation, it has been confirmed that Darrell Hair will not stand in the Champions Trophy in India next month.

"Darrell Hair will not umpire the ICC Champions Trophy on the basis of safety and security concerns," Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC's media manager, said. "An announcement on the appointment of officials for that tournament will be made in due course."

Asked if this was nothing more than a convenient get-out, Muragtroyd replied: "Not as far as I am aware".

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, issued a press statement in which he said: "A decision has been made in consultation with the ICC president Percy Sonn, the ICC general manager of cricket David Richardson and myself that he will not umpire at the Champions Trophy amid concerns over his safety and security and also the safety and security of those around him during the tournament."

ya u r right... its kinda weird...

Well, Actually...
SL, WI, Zim, Ban battle it out for the final two spots through round robin.
Then starts the actual tournament!

thx scs07,

Intresting Brabourne Stadium, and not Wankhede , dont quite remember seeing a match in Brabourne Stadium in years.
Will surely try to catch one match atleast .. thinking of booking for the final or 4th/5th match ...please all wish india makes it to the final hehe

Isnt Braboune a much smaller ground as compared to Wankhede?

All I remember is Australia/England playing their warm up match at Brabourne! Brabourne to host the finals too! Interesting!

Its kinda strange why there is no match in Delhi and some other prominent venues Also, its weird that a team like SL has to play qualifying matches just coz it is not ranked amongst the top 6...

A few interesting facts of the Champions Tophy:

Most Runs: Sourav Ganguly - 665 runs in 13 matches

Highest Batting Average: Saeed Anwar - 144.5

Highest Individual Score: Nathan Astle - 145 Not Out New Zealand v United States of America at The Oval, ICC Champions Trophy, 2004

Most Centuries: Herschelle Gibbs and Sourav Ganguly - 3 centuries

Most Runs in a Tournament: Sourav Ganguly - 348 runs in 4 matches in the year 2000

Most Sixes: Sourav Ganguly: 17 sixes

First wicket partnership: Shewag-Ganguly and Hinds-Gayle - 192 runs

********************************

Results Day 1 and 2

Day 1: SL defeat Bang by 37 runs... I was expecting it to be a complete routing of Bang, but they made a mtach of it!!
Star of the Day: Tharanga 105 Runs...

Day 2: WI def ZIM: they way they white washed ZIM was unexpected!!
Star of the Day: Chris Gayle 41 Runs off 34 Balls and 3 Wickets giving only 3 runs...

'Four to five of our players couldn't click' - Dravid

Nagraj Gollapudi in New Delhi

October 8, 2006

The Indian team has great faith in experimentation. That was the indication given by the captain-coach combine of Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell, apart from three members of the Indian squad, who spoke at the team's media briefing in New Delhi before they kick off their Champions Trophy campaign.

Criticised in the media for not having a settled look yet, with just under six months to go for the World Cup, Greg Chappell clarified that experimentation is basically development of the squad and a "constant process."

Giving a positive spin to the experiments, Dravid said that they (experiments) provided results. "What you have always called experimentation I have generally called it as strategy, which is what gives us the best chance to win a game. Whatever strategy will work best to win a game I will use it. That will depend on the players I have, the form they are in, the fitness of all the players and we have to take a lot of things into consideration that other people are not privy to or [have] access to."

After a string of successes last year, where India scored convincing victories over Sri Lanka, England and Pakistan, the team lost track first suffering a 4-1 defeat in the Caribbean last season and then being ousted in the tri-nation DLF Cup in Malaysia after managing to win just one game.

The indifferent form of matchwinners like Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan had deeply affected the winning momentum, and the top order in batting had been shuffled frequently. But seniors like Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar are not losing much sleep. "We had a dip because few of our key players who were really performing well for us in the period we were successful haven't been able to hit perform", said Dravid, who felt these were quality players and there was no cause for concern.

"Unfortunately in the our last six to seven matches four to five of our players couldn't click. That is where Australia are good at: they are able to build a good squad because of the depth they possess. It doesn't really matter if players are out of form as they can always rely on different people," Dravid added. Instead, he felt that over-reliance on certain players was an area they should be looking into.

Tendulkar, who recently came back during the DLF Cup after a four-month layoff, felt that "Not all batsmen are going to be in good form. The ones who are in good form make it up for the other guys and the same holds for the bowlers. That adjustment is necessary." While lending his support for the team's flexible methods, Tendulkar thought the need of the hour was balance. "Experiments should go on to certain extent. I know it is equally important to settle down and figure individual roles, but that doesn't mean we should totally stop experimenting. There should be a nice balance."

Sehwag, who was asked to move down the order to No. 4 in Malaysia, had no qualms adapting to the challenge. Sehwag, who started his career as a middle order bat, confirmed that he is ready to open in the Champions Trophy, but explained "I enjoy batting both as an opener as well in the middle. More important for me is the challenge. If you are batting in the middle order and if two or three wickets fall you need to responsible, make runs and at the same time not lose your wicket. When you open the ball is new and that is another kind of challenge."

Chappell, who has come in for a lot of flak for his lateral thinking, strongly felt that experiments would benefit in the long run. Refusing to be disappointed about the team's recent losses, and instead happy with the way "Rahul is going about developing the squad", Chappell tried explaining why what he and his team are doing was necessary. "The reason that we have done most of these things (experiments) are well thought through, they are not done at the spur of the moment. Since people outside are not privy to most of our discussions, therefore they are not able to understand what we are trying to do. There are positives that come out it, like things that individuals learn about themselves, things that the individuals learn about the different roles that are required within a team."

Yet questions remained. A case in point is Irfan Pathan, who is going through an extended bad run with the ball. Dravid adamantly refused to believe that and said that his opinion about Pathan remains the same as it was back when Pathan was performing well with the ball and batting up the order. "I have always maintained that Irfan Pathan is primarily a bowler to me first who contributes with the bat. Irfan himself has told us that batting up the order has no relevance to his bowling."

Dravid felt it was for the player now to hit back as "There is a certain amount you can do as a captain or a coach. At the end of the day there is certain thing called individual responsibility and individual performance - you control your own destiny, which is something you should never forget. We've a lot of faith in Irfan and we know how important he is for the team. We were able to play five bowlers consistently last season because of the success of Irfan and Dhoni, and I mention them as key players."

Tendulkar felt it was important to have the winning momentum. "It has to be with you (momentum) - that is what happened to us in the 2003 World Cup where towards the start of the tournament we struggled a bit and towards the end we were a different lot altogether. That was because we started gradually but surely, so that was a big turning point for us."

Yuvraj Singh echoed Tendulkar's thoughts, saying consistency was what India need now. "You can't keep winning for six months and fall away in the next six months."

Results Day 3

SL def ZIM by 144 runs...

Star of the day: Tharanga - 110 runs

Golden Moments from the past Champions Trophy - I

Zaheer Khan's yorker India v Australia, ICC Knockout 1st quarter-final, 2000

Australia needed 43 runs from eight overs. The battle-hardened Steve Waugh was still in the middle, looking good on 24. Anil Kumble had just bled 15 runs and Sourav Ganguly, in desperation, threw the ball to a young left-arm paceman playing only his second match. Zaheer Khan bounded in, leapt into his delivery stride, arched back his upper body like a catapult and hurled the ball across. Waugh backed away to the leg side to give himself room to punish any looseners first up. Instead, the ball hurtled in fast, flat, and low: a yorker. Waugh stabbed at it in desperation but the ball squeezed under his bat to disturb the furniture. India went on to win. Alongside Kapil Dev's dismissal of Qasim Omar during the giddy summer of '85 down under, this was one of the most memorable yorkers bowled by an Indian pacemen in one-day internationals.

Results Day 4

WI Def BAN by 10 Wickets...

Star of the day: Chris Gayle - 104 runs : 1 Wicket

Golden Moments from the past Champions Trophy - II

Philo Wallace's first-ball six West Indies v India, semi-final, 1999

West Indies and their opener Philo Wallace had surprised everybody by beating Pakistan in the quarter-final, and now faced another favourite, India, in the semis of the inaugural Champions Trophy. Not many knew Wallace then and few will remember him now. Javagal Srinath is unlikely to forget him though. Wallace got to the pitch of his very first ball, a loose half-volley outside off-stump, put all of his huge frame and heavy bat into the shot and lofted it over long-off, the thud as it landed reverberating all around the ground. As with many significant sixes, this was also more than just the sum total of runs it produced, as much a sign of confidence as a statement of intimidation. Srinath did not recover from that blow and neither did India, who went on the lose by six wickets. Wallace scored 221 of his 701 career runs (33 matches) from three games in this tournament.

ICC CHAMPIONS' TROPHY FACTS


The coveted ICC Champions Trophy has its origins in London, England – having been designed and manufactured by Crown Jewellers, Asprey, who also have the distinction of manufacturing other ICC trophies for events such as the ICC Cricket ICC Cricket World Cup, the ICC Test Championship Mace and the ICC U/19 Cricket ICC Cricket World Cup. The ICC Champions Trophy stands 18 inches tall (45.72 centimeters) and is 5.5 inches (13.97 centimeters) at its widest point. It weighs a modest 8 kilograms or just under 18 pounds.

The stunning trophy is crafted with solid silver and consists of a silver gilt cricket ball engraved with a map of the world. The ball is mounted on a trefoil of sterling silver panels that taper down to a lacquered wooden plinth with the front panel engraved with the tournament title and logo.

Though its commercial value is approximately US $20,000, to the cricketing world its priceless!

The trophy made its first appearance in 2002 when the tournament’s name was changed from the ICC Knock-out to the ICC Champions Trophy.

Joint winners, India and Sri Lanka became the first teams to win the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002.

wow sachin thnks for those updates..lookin fwd for the sunday's match..
hopefully India wins... wat abt the opening pair..so whos gonna open the Indian innings this time ?

Hi Sahil... me too waiting for India's match!! I think Dravid will again open But I hope it is Sachin and Shewag who open the innings!!

Flintoff won't bowl against India
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Jaipur
October 12, 2006

The good news was that England cruised through their first, and only, practice game against an unheralded side; the bad news is that Andrew Flintoff, who smashed a breezy 59 with the bat, revealed that he will not be bowling in the opening game of the Champions Trophy, a crucial clash against India on Sunday.

"I won't be bowling this Sunday," Flintoff told reporters at the end of a tiring day in the field. "As for the series, I'm bowling in the nets, trying to build it [the ankle] up. As for an exact date as to when I'll be bowling again, I'm not sure. I've bowled two or three times in the nets and it's feeling strong but that's something that we're assessing day by day."

Speculation has been rife about Flintoff opening the batting in the tournament and his entry at No.3 today lent more weight to that theory. Flintoff, though, played his cards close to his chest. "Today, we had the order we had," he dead-batted. "Going into Sunday, we'd need to discuss with the coach and decide. We have quite a few options we can take but it's something we'll finalise before Sunday."

Flintoff was visibly sapped at the end of a demanding day under the Jaipur sun but he brushed aside suggestions that the weather might affect his team's chances. "I thought we coped quite well with the heat last time," he reasoned, talking about England's visit to India earlier in the year, when they encountered temperatures so oppressive that a few players needed saline drips. "We have experience in playing in extreme heat. It's something we're aware of. We're getting accustomed to it in the last few days."

Just as they'd done against Pakistan, England played both their spinners - Jamie Dalrymple and Michael Yardy - in the warm-up game as well. "We played two spinners today and they're obviously vital members of our side as are the pace bowlers. We're quite fortunate to have three allrounders in the side - Collingwood, Yardy and Dalrymple. They all bat well and bowl their overs. We also have Rikki Clarke. It gives us a lot of depth."

Its known that WI and SL are the teams that qualify and enter the Round II of this competition, Match 5 and 6 are just formalities to decide the order in which they stand.

Match 5: Bangladesh Beat Zimbabwe
Star Performer: S. Nafees

Match 6: SriLanka beat WI
Star Performer: Ferveez Maharoof

Well, I expected SL vs WI to be a good match based on the current form. But SL showed, WI hadd little batting to show once the top order was skittled!

India Vs England

do or die for india i think , since we are more or less guarenteed to lose againt australia and even if we defeat WI , then the Runrates come in play which is leaving things to chance too much , i think we should play to the wicket (taking bowlers suited to pitch rather than names) and play without too much experiments

saching sehwag to open , followed by dravid.

Ind - Eng
Well, India did well to bundle out England for 125 and then made a match out of it and managed to win!
Wouldnt be a wise thing to debate if it was a good/bad performance!

Star performer: Munaf Patel

NZ vs SA
NZ were bundled out for 196 at the Brabourne. But then they did put a good fight to bundle out SA for 108!!
So no team in recent times able to cross the 200 run mark at Brabourne!

Star Performer: Stephen Fleming

thnx for updating rey!!

3rd Match, Group B
Pakistan v Sri Lanka
Result Pakistan won by 4 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)

Star of the Day: Abdul Razzaq - 4 wickets and 38 Runs

Australia VS West Indies

Result West Indies won by 10 runs!!!!!!

Star of the day: JE Taylor - 4 Wickets which included a hat trick!!

Can you believe it - WI defeated Aus... So Australia's bad run in the Champions Trophy continues!!

The venue for the final might be changed... I read that Raj Singh Dungarpur has said that they will scrutinize the pitch and if it still kept low bounce, they will request the ICC to change the venue for the final... The ICC spokes person has said that there r still 2 weeks for the finals and any such talk right now is premature... Lets see...



Some interesting facts about this venue:
The venue is only being used because ICC regulations demanded stadiums free of private advertising commitments, and that ruled out many major locations, including Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.

The Brabourne was dropped as the city's major international venue in 1974 when a row between the CCI and the Indian board over ticket allocations led to the board building a rival venue, the Wankhede.

Thats shocking... this surely must hav been a very interesting match...

Yup... that was pretty interesting! Well it was also after a very long time that a team batting first could surpass 200 at the Brabourne in ODIs!



Today's Match:

South Africa Beat Sri Lanka by 78 runs

Star Performer: Shaun Pollock (All Round 21* & 2-21)

New Zealand beat Pakistan by 51 runs

Star performer: S. Fleming

NewZealand become the first team to reach the knock-out stages of the tournament while the win edges SriLanka out of the tournament.

West Indies Beat India by 3 wickets

Star Performer: R Sarwan

So, its India vs to Australia to decide the semi-finalists.

thnx rey for updating, i wud be a lil busy for sometime... thnx for keeping it going...

- South Africa beat Pakistan

- England beat West Indies

- Australia beat India
Star performer: D Martyn

---------------------------------------------------------------

Semi Final Line up:

Australia vs New Zealand

South Africa vs West Indies