ICC Champions Trophy - England 2013

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The 2013 ICC Champions Trophy is a One Day International cricket tournament held in England and Wales between 6 and 23 June, 2013. Three cities will host the tournament's matches: London (at The Oval), Birmingham (at Edgbaston) and Cardiff (at Cardiff Wales Stadium). The winners of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy will earn $2,000,000 in prize money, the largest amount since the tournament's inception. It will be the seventh and final ICC Champions Trophy, as it is due to be replaced by the ICC World Test Championship in 2017.

A brief history ...

The Champions Trophy was the brainchild of Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was ICC president in the late 1990s. It had a dual aim of spreading the game to emerging nations and raising money for the ICC in between World Cups, thus enabling it to pump more cash into those fledgling cricket countries.

The first tournament, labelled as a mini World Cup, was staged in Dhaka in October 1998 and raised more than £10 million. The second, in Nairobi, was a commercial success although the crowds stayed away. By the time the 2002 event was held - and there was disquiet as it was so close to the World Cup five months later - the idea of playing in developing nations had been ditched (in fairness, options had already been exhausted) and as revenue-generation was the main raison d'etre, it needed to be in one of the main countries as this allowed the format to be expanded.

In 2004 the jamboree moved to England and it became clear the format of group games led to too many meaningless games. By the time the 2006 tournament in India came into view, the event was under fire from some quarters, and at one time there were even hints that India might decline to take part in 2008. They did not, but against the rapid growth of Twenty20, the Champions Trophy grew more unloved, other than by the money men, with each passing event.