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'Mini World Cup' time

AFP, London
The ICC Champions Trophy starts in England on Friday with world champions Australia's bid to win the tournament for the first time adding fresh impetus to a competition that has so far struggled to capture the imagination of cricket followers worldwide.
Billed as the 'mini World Cup' its proximity to the main event -- this fourth edition comes a year after Australia were crowned world champions in South Africa -- means the Champions Trophy is overshadowed.
But it has one advantage over its 'big brother' in that, weather permitting, it lasts 15 days compared to the 43 days of a World Cup.
And yet it still features all the world's leading 11 teams, with the United States the lone representative from beneath an albeit tiered elite.
The 12 sides are divided into four groups of three and these essentially pit two strong nations against one of the weaker teams. Australia, the tournament favourites, will have to get past transTasman rivals New Zealand, one of the few sides capable of giving them a game in recent years, in a group that also features the United States.
Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain has made it clear that, whatever anyone else thinks about the competition, his team will be treating it with the utmost seriousness.
"We are pretty disappointed with the way we have played in the Champions Trophy," he said.
"In the first two years we lost in the first round to India and we made the semifinal last time but got beaten by Sri Lanka."
Ponting added: "This is the second biggest one-day tournament and whilst we have managed to win the last couple of World Cups it would be nice to win the Champions Trophy as well and if we perform our skills well we should be in the mix."
Sri Lanka and India, co-holders of the Champions Trophy after the 2002 final in Colombo was washed out, will both be missing key players.
Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who holds the world record for most Test wickets record with 532, is out of the tournament because of a shoulder injury.
And India will have to do without master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, sidelined with an elbow problem.
However, Sri Lanka showed there was life after Murali by completing a 5-0 one-day whitewash at home to South Africa last month although how their side will adjust to the prospect of 0915GMT starts and a swinging ball remains to be seen.
India, saw a run of poor results end with a morale-boosting 23-run win against England at Lord's on Sunday where left-arm quick Irfan Pathan, voted Emerging Player of the Year at Tuesday's ICC Awards, took two for 32.
But India captain Sourav Ganguly warned afterwards. "We are a better batting unit than this and we all need to fire if we hope to do well in the Champions Trophy."
Hosts England could prove the dark horses event. Despite Sunday's reverse they won the three-game series against India 2-1 to end a disappointing run of one-day results.
And in Andrew Flintoff, the One-Day International Player of the Year, they have a 'three-dimensional' cricketer in the form of his life.
As for the rest, Pakistan and West Indies remain capable of brilliance and blundering in equal measure while just being competitive will represent significant progress for minnows Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. But there are signs that Pakistan, under new coach Bob Woolmer, are developing a harder edge.
They pushed Australia close for the second time in as many weeks during a 10-run defeat at Lord's on Saturday and their sell-out game against India on September 19 at Edgbaston promises to be the match of the tournament.