Champions trophy classics - 1998

ICC Champions trophy began as a knock out tournament in the year 1998.. It is conducted once in two years and is touted as the mini world cup..

ICC Knock out trophy 1998 was called WILLS International Cup..

The ICC decided to award the tournament to Bangladesh to promote the game in that nation. One the worst ever floods of the region  threatened to ruin the tournament. However, the tournament eventually went ahead in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Cricket Board promised to donate 10% of the gate money to the Prime Minister's Fund for flood reflief.

The tournament was intended to be held in a direct knock-out format for all the test playing countries of the time. There were 9 countries eligible which meant that 2 countries would play a qualifier knockout to determine the final 8 teams. Initially, it was announced that the 9 teams would be ranked according to the 1996 Cricket World Cup seeding. However, the draw eventually released appeared to have been tweaked in favor of some of the team with bigger fan following.



According to the final fixtures, New Zealand had to play Zimbabwe to qualify for the main draw.

Match Schedule

Date -1998               Match

24 October          1. New Zealand v Zimbabwe  :: Qualifiers

Quarter Finals
25 October          2. England v South Africa
26 October          3. Sri Lanka v New Zealand
28 October          4. Australia v India
29 October          5. Pakistan v West Indies

Semi Finals
30 October          6. winner of QF 1 vs QF 2
31 October          7. winner of QF 3 vs QF 4

Final
1 November          8. winner of SF 1 vs SF 2
2 November          Reserve Day

All matches at Bangabandhu National Stadium

Australian Squad

• Steve Waugh (captain),
• Mark Waugh (vice-captain),  
• Michael Bevan, 
• Damien Fleming, 
• Adam Gilchrist, 
• Brendon Julian, 
• Michael Kasprowicz, 
• Darren Lehmann,
• Damien Martyn, 
• Glenn McGrath, 
• Ricky Ponting, 
• Gavin Robertson, 
• Andrew Symonds, 
• Brad Young.

England Squad

• *AJ Hollioake
• ID Austin
• AD Brown
• DR Brown
• MA Ealham
• NH Fairbrother
• MV Fleming
• AF Giles
• GA Hick
• NV Knight
• GD Lloyd
• PJ Martin
• RC Russell
• CEW Silverwood 

New Zealand Squad

• *SP Fleming
• GI Allott
• NJ Astle
• MD Bailey
• MD Bell
• SB Doull
• CZ Harris
• MJ Horne
• CD McMillan
• SB O'Connor
• AC Parore
• AR Tait
• DL Vettori
• PJ Wiseman 

Pakistan Squad

•  *Aamer Sohail
• Akhtar Safraz
• Ijaz Ahmed
• Saleem Malik
• Yousuf Youhana
• Moin Khan
• Shahid Afridi
• Wasim Akram
• Shoaib Akhtar
• Saqlain Mushtaq
• Arshad Khan
• Aaqib Javed
• Saleem Elahi
• Azhar Mahmood 

South African Squad

• *WJ Cronje
• DM Benkenstein
• N Boje
• MV Boucher
• DN Crookes
• DJ Cullinan
• AC Dawson
• S Elworthy
• JH Kallis
• G Kirsten
• M Ntini
• SM Pollock
• JN Rhodes
• PL Symcox 

Sri Lankan Squad

• Arjuna Ranatunga, Capt
• Aravinda De Silva, VC
• Roshan Mahanama
• Hashan Tillakeratne
• Sanath Jayasuriya
• +Romesh Kaluwitharana
• Mavan Atapattu
• Mutiah Muralitharan
• Chaminda Vaas
• Avishka Gunawardene
• Upul Chandana
• Nuwan Zoysa
• Pramodya Wikramasinghe
• Kumara Dharmasena 

West Indies Squad

• *BC Lara
• KLT Arthurton
• S Chanderpaul
• M Dillon
• CL Hooper
• RD Jacobs
• CB Lambert
• RN Lewis
• NAM McLean
• NC McGarrell
• PV Simmons
• PA Wallace
• SC Williams
• RD King 

Zimbabwe Squad

*ADR Campbell +A Flower GJ Rennie GW Flower CB Wishart MW Goodwin CN Evans PA Strang HH Streak NC Johnson M Mbangwa AR Whittall HK Olonga AG Huckle

Indian Squad

• *M Azharuddin
• A Jadeja
• SR Tendulkar
• SC Ganguly
• RR Singh
• +NR Mongia
• A Kumble
• SB Joshi
• BKV Prasad
• AB Agarkar
• J Srinath
• R Dravid
• VVS Laxman
• N Chopra

The matches and results in the next post..