Champions Trophy 2025: Interesting facts

As the ninth edition of the Champions Trophy begins today with the game between hosts and defending champions Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi today, here we look at some of the interesting facts regarding the competition in which the eight top-ranked ICC teams battle for glory.

The first edition of the ICC Champions Trophy took place in Bangladesh in 1998. South Africa won that tournament, beating the West Indies in the final.
In the beginning, the tournament was simple. Named the ICC Knockout tournament, it was played in a knockout system. If a team lost, they went home! But later, it changed and became bigger, with teams playing in groups before the knockouts. In 2002, the name of the tournament was changed to the ICC Champions Trophy.
Australia and India have won the tournament most times, each boasting two titles. Australia won in 2006 and 2009, while India shared the 2002 title with Sri Lanka and then won outright in 2013.
The 2002 Champions Trophy final was washed out by rain, despite 110.4 overs of action across two days, resulting in a shared title for India and Sri Lanka.
From 2000 to 2004, associate nations participated in the tournament. Kenya competed in all three tournaments (2000, 2002 and 2004), but never progressed beyond the group-stage. The Netherlands participated in 2002 and the USA in 2004.
Pakistan was to host the 2009 Champions Trophy but lost the hosting rights to South Africa due to security concerns.
Since winning the 2009 edition, Australia haven’t won a match in the tournament. They were eliminated in the group-stage in 2013 (losing to England and Sri Lanka) and 2017 (after a loss to England and washouts against New Zealand and Bangladesh).
West Indies batter Chris Gayle is the all-time top run-scorer in the tournament with 791 runs in 17 innings. This tally includes three centuries and a fifty. The left-handed batter hit 474 runs of the 791 in the 2006 tournament.
Gayle is one of four players with three centuries in the Champions Trophy. The others are Herschelle Gibbs, Sourav Ganguly and Shikhar Dhawan.
New Zealand seamer Kyle Mills holds the record for the most wickets in the history of the tournament (28).
Tamim Iqbal holds the record for most Champions Trophy runs for Bangladesh. He amassed a total of 293 runs in the 2017 edition, including a century and two half-centuries, averaging 73.25 and striking it at 86.17.
Mohammad Rafique is Bangladesh’s leading wicket-taker in the Champions Trophy. He claimed a total of six wickets in eight matches.

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