21.6.2008

The ICC Champions Trophy and the official logo for the tournament were unveiled at a glamorous function in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday evening and Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has indicated his keenness to return to winning ways. Sri Lanka have struggled in the last 12 month in ODI cricket and Jayawardene wants to put things right.

"We want to do well, particularly with the event being held in Asia, and want to maintain our position as one of the biggest forces in world cricket. It's the biggest event after the World Cup and it gives you the opportunity to test your skills with the best in the world," Jayawardene said in a message sent to the International Cricket Council.

The ICC Champions Trophy is known as the Mini World Cup and Sri Lanka finished joint champions alongside India in 2002 when they hosted the tournament.

The tournament will be worked off from 11th to 28th of September and will be staged in three venues – Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

The short, sharp event, with 15 matches in just 18 days, will also play a key role in the further development of the game worldwide. This tournament will generate $10million for ICC members below the top tier, taking to $75million the amount raised by this tournament for development since it began in 1998.

Unlike previous years, the ICC Associate members are not included in the competition and even full members Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are not in the tournament as only the top eight teams in the ICC points table feature in the tournament.

The teams of this year’s tournament have been divided into two groups.

Group A includes defending champions Australia, India, Pakistan and the West Indies while South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England are in Group B.

Each side plays all other sides in its group and the top two teams from each group progress to the semi-finals with the top side from Group A playing the second-placed side from Group B and the second-placed side from Group A playing the top side from Group B.

The final will be staged at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, where Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup. Karachi and Rawalpindi will host the semi-finals.

The ICC initially staged the tournament in non Test playing nations with Bangladesh hosting the 1998 edition and Kenya hosting the 2000 edition. But since then, the highly popular tournament has been hosted by full members with Sri Lanka (2002), England (2004) and India (2006) hosting the competition.

The previous winners of the tournament are South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies and Australia. Sri Lanka and India were declared joint champions in 2002.

Courtesy - The Island