Mar 14 2008
India draw Australia, Pakistan and West Indies in Champions Trophy!
After first time defeating Australia in volatile tri-series by 2-0 the two teams are again set to face the challenge for the ICC Champions Trophy going to be held in September in Pakistan.
The two teams are in the same group (Group A) including Pakistan and West Indies also. The second group (Group B) features South Africa, New Zealand [Images], Sri Lanka [Images] and England [Images].
The ICC Development International Board had decided that the 2008 tournament would feature the eight top teams as per the ICC ODI Championship table exactly six months prior to the scheduled start of the tournament.
The event will be played in a round-robin format with the top two sides from each group progressing to the semi-finals with the winners of these matches contesting the final.
The team distribution with seedlings can be seen as follows:
Group A: Australia (1), India (4), Pakistan (5), West Indies (8)
Group B: South Africa (2), New Zealand (3), Sri Lanka (6), England (7)
The teams are grouped according to their rankings in the ICC ODI Championship table as on March 12, which was the cut-off date for the determination of the seedings for the Champions Trophy.
As can be seen Australia at the top just ahead of the Proteas, who can take over the number one ranking if they beat Bangladesh in the third one-dayer of their series in Mirpur on Friday.
India is placed at position four just before Pakistan. New Zealand are ranked third and Sri Lanka sixth, one ahead of England. West Indies are at the end even though they won the 2004 Champions Trophy and lost in the final of the last edition.
