As the title suggests, this will be the Sixth Edition of the Champions Trophy Tournament. Although we’ve had some jaw-dropping contests in the past, ICC has brought in some more changes so as to make it more competitive this time around which is scheduled to be held in Pakistan.

Questions are being asked whether Pakistan will be Politically stable by then. But if ” Yes “, there’s no question what will be on offer. The Groupings have been completed. The change that has been brought in is that only the Top 8 teams will compete in this Tournament. That leaves out Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya out of the race.

The teams were pooled based on their Rankings eactly six months before the start of the Tournament. That meant that Australia were seeded No.1 as the date was just before the start of the final ODI between South Africa and Bangladesh ( which saw South Africa move on to No.1 ).

The event will be played on a Round-Robin format and the top two teams from each group will go on to play the Semi-Finals subsequently. That means that we’ll surely have a very good contest on the cards. I’ve listed the Groupings below.

GROUP A :

• Australia (1)
• India (4)
• Pakistan (5)
• West Indies (8)

GROUP B :

• South Africa (2)
• New Zealand (3)
• Sri Lanka (6)
• England (7)

What would make this a more heated contest is because of the way GROUP A has lined up. After the recent CB series, you know what’ll be on offer during future India-Australia contest. With Pakistan, there has never been short of contests on the field. Moreover they will be the home side this time around. West Indies are the moody competitors as they can raise the standards to newer levels without any prior notice.

GROUP B has some fierce competitors as even those teams are well-balanced and can rip their opponents on a given day. So guys look out for this year’s Champions Trophy for some spicy action.

CHAMPIONS TROPHY SO FAR :

1998 – South Africa

2000 – New Zealand

2002 – India and Sri Lanka

2004 – West Indies

2006 – Australia