ICC Champions Trophy backgrounder
. Having been staged first in 1998, this is the sixth time the tournament will take place
. The tournament was called the ICC Knock-Out on the first two occasions it was contested, in 1998 and 2000
. The tournament's name was changed to the ICC Champions Trophy for the 2002 event
. Previous venues for the tournament have been Bangladesh (1998), Kenya (2000), Sri Lanka (2002), England (2004) and India (2006)
. Eight teams will take part in this year's tournament; previous events have involved 10 teams (2006), nine teams (1998), 11 teams (2000) and 12 teams (2002 and 2004)
. Previous winners are: South Africa (beat the West Indies in the final in 1998); New Zealand (beat India in 2000); Sri Lanka and India (declared joint winners after the final was rained off), the West Indies (beat England, in 2004), Australia (beat West Indies, in 2006)
ICC Champions Trophy 2009
. For the first time, the event involves only the top eight-ranked teams for what is a short, sharp and prestigious event
. The man-of-the-match awards will be exclusive IWC watches, each worth US$8,500
. For the first time, there will be unique ICC Champions jackets presented to the winners
The eight competing sides are: Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
Group A
Australia
India
Pakistan
West Indies
Group B
South Africa
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
England
. Each side plays three matches against the other sides in their group. At the end of those matches the top two sides go forward to the semi-finals
. The top side from Group A will play the second-placed side from Group B and the second-placed side from Group A plays the top side from Group B
. The winners of those two matches will contest the final
. The total prize money of this year's tournament amounts to US$4million, which is four times what it was in 2006
. The total number of matches in this year's tournament will be 15
. There will be a mixture of day and day/night games
ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Commercial Partners
GLOBAL PARTNERS: Reliance Mobile, LG
OFFICIAL PARTNERS: Reebok, Yahoo!, Pepsi, Emirates
LOCAL SPONSORS: Europcar, Standard Bank, Southern Sun, South Africa Tourism
BROADCAST PARTNER: ESPN STAR Sports
The ICC Champions Trophy 2009 is one of the premier events in world cricket. Hundreds of thousands of people will visit the two match venues in The Wanderers and Centurion to watch the 15 matches scheduled to take place while hundreds of millions around the world will enjoy those matches on television via the broadcast partner ESPN STAR Sports and through other forms of media.
For more information go to www.icc-cricket.com or http://www.icc-cricket.com/events_and_awards/champions_trophy/index.php