The International Cricket Council is the official governing of cricket globally. It organizes the most elite multi-nation tournaments. These include the World Test Championships, the 50-over cricket World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the T20 World Cup. We discuss about the Champions Trophy in this article.
In 1998, with the aim of raising funds for the non-test-playing nations, the International Cricket Council decided to contest the Knockout Trophy. This was played between top teams and the first champion was South Africa. The success of the event led to the tournament renaming itself as the Champions Trophy in 2002. The tournament runs for nearly 15 days and features the top eight teams from the recently held 50-over cricket World Cup.
Dubbed as the mini World Cup, the Champions Trophy sees two groups of four teams each. Teams in each group play the other in the round-robin format. The top two teams from either group at the end of the league stage qualify for the semis. Of the 13 teams that have thus far qualified for the Champions Trophy, seven different teams have won the tournament. As of July 2025, India is the most successful nation with three titles, followed by Australia with two titles. New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan have won the title once each.
As of July 2025, Chris Gayle’s record of scoring a total of 791 runs is the highest in the tournament. New Zealand’s Kyle Mills is the leading wicket-taker with 28 dismissals to his name in the Champions Trophy. India’s win rate of a little over 74% is the highest among all teams who have participated in the tournament.
A women’s champions trophy is scheduled to take place in 2027. Sri Lanka will host the tournament and the matches will be played in the T20 format. Six teams will qualify for the tournament. Each team will play the other in a round-robin format and the top two teams at the end of the league stage will contest the final.
