ICC Champions Trophy launch on Wednesday

The official launch of the ICC Champions Trophy 2008 will take place in the Crystal Ballroom of the Pearl Continental in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2008 will be staged in September and will be spread over three cities - Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi.

This year's tournament will feature the top eight sides from the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table as of 11 March 2008. They are Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,

England and the West Indies.

The teams have been divided into two groups according to their seeding. Group A will include Australia, India, Pakistan and the West Indies while South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England are in Group B.

Each side plays all other sides in its group with the top two teams from each group progressing to the semifinals with the top side from Group A playing the second placed side from Group B and the second placed side

from Group A playing the top side from Group B.

That final will be staged at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, which also hosted the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996. The other venues, Karachi and Rawalpindi will host the two semifinals.