Champions Trophy

The ICC Champions Trophy is cricket's one-day international tournament second in importance only to the Cricket World Cup. It was inaugurated as the ICC Knock Out tournament in 1998 and has been played every two years since, changing its name to the Champions Trophy in 2002. All ten full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) take part, together with (for the first four competitions) two associate members.

Since the quadrennial Cricket World Cup and on-going ICC ODI Championship effectively determine the relative rankings of international cricket teams in one-day international cricket, there seems to be little need for the Champions Trophy as a junior tournament. However, the Champions Trophy is a financially important event for the ICC. Money generated through the event is used in ICC's Development Program.

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.

Unlike the World Cup, no team plays another more than once in the Champions Trophy. For 2002 and 2004, twelve team 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 will play 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. The Australian team lost to India early on in the tournament and was critical of the format, since a losing team was given no second chance.

Previous Winners

Year	Venue	Winner	Runner Up	Format
1998	Bangladesh	South Africa	West Indies	Knockout
2000	Kenya	New Zealand	India	Knockout
	Sri Lanka	India/Sri Lanka	*	Round robin
2004	England	West Indies	England	Round robin
2006	India	-	-	Round robin