A Brief History of the ICC Champions Trophy

The ICC Champions Trophy initially called the ICC KnockOut Tournament, kicked off in 1998 and changed its name to the Champions Trophy in 2002.

The Champions Trophy will start in Pakistan and UAE from February 19. The upcoming icc event is also known as the Mini World Cup, where the top 8 teams of the world take on each other. This is the 9th edition of this mega event. Like always, 8 teams have been divided into 2 groups in the Champions Trophy. Group A consists of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & New Zealand whereas Group B has teams like Australia,Afghanistan, England and South Africa. Now, all the teams want to win the upcoming ICC matches to clinch the marquee event. Before this, the champions trophy was played 8 times. South Africa were the inaugural champions while Pakistan is the defending champion. Today we are going to tell you a brief history of the Champions Trophy.

1998 — South Africa

In 1998, the ICC Champions Trophy was held in Bangladesh. The tournament was played in a knockout format. South Africa won all 3 matches and clinched their maiden ICC Trophy.

In the final, the Proteas team beat West Indies by 4 wickets. Jacques Kallis was the leading wicket-taker in that tournament with 8 wickets while West Indies’s Philo Wallace became the leading run scorer with 221 runs.

2000- New Zealand

In 2000, the 2nd edition of the ICC Champions trophy (Knockout Cup 2002) was held in Kenya. After South Africa, New Zealand won their 1st ICC Trophy in this tournament. They beat India by 4 wickets in the final. Sourav Ganguly was the leading run-scorer in this tournament with 348 runs including 2 centuries and 1 half-century while Venkatesh Prasad was the leading wicket taker who got 8 wickets. But this was not enough for the Indian side.

2002 — India & Sri Lanka (Joint winners)

In 2002, the Champions trophy was held in Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka were joint winners of this tournament. The final started 2 times but because of rain interruption, the match did not happen and finally India and Sri Lanka shared this trophy. Virender Sehwag made 271 runs and became leading run scorer in that tournament while SL’s Muttaiah Muralitharan took 10 wickets.

2004 — West Indies

In 2004, England was the host of this tournament. West Indies became champions to beat England in the final. The Caribbean side won the finals by 2 wickets. In this Tournament, England’s Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff became leading run scorers and wicket-taker respectively. Trescothick made 261 runs while Flintoff took 9 wickets but despite all this, England couldn’t win the trophy.

2006 — Australia

In 2006, India was the host of this tournament. Australia clinched their maiden champion trophy in 8 years. They beat the mighty West Indies in the finals by the margin of 8 wickets.

Chris Gayle scored 474 runs and his teammate Jerome Taylor took 13 wickets in this tournament but despite all this, they lost the final in a rain-interrupted match.

2009 — Australia

In 2009, the Champions Trophy was held in South Africa. Australia won their Consecutive 2nd Champions Trophy title. In the finals, they beat New Zealand by 6 wickets. Ricky Ponting made 288 runs and became the leading run scorer while Wayne Parnell took the most at 11 wickets.

2013 — India

Champions Trophy 2013 was hosted by England for the second time after 2004. India won their first CT title under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. India defeated England by 5 runs in the final in a rain-interrupted match. The final match became 20–20, as the Indian side held the nerves and won their second ICC Champions Trophy title. It was also the third title won by India under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Shikhar Dhawan was the leading run scorer where he scored 361 runs while Ravindra Jadeja took 12 wickets.

2017 — Pakistan

Champions Trophy 2017 was again hosted by England. Pakistan won their 1st Champions trophy title where they beat India by 158 runs in the finals. Shikhar Dhawan again became the leading run scorer where he scored 338 runs whereas Hasan Ali got 13 wickets in this tournament. India lost the opportunity to win its 2nd consecutive CT title in this match.