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Hosts Pakistan have been bracketed in the same group with world champions Australia and arch-rivals India for this fall’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy.

According to the pools of the eight-nation tournament announced by the ICC on Thursday, Pakistan will be sharing Group A with Australia, India and the West Indies. Group B includes winner of the inaugural event South Africa as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.

The groupings were finalised on the basis of teams’ rankings in the ICC One-day International (ODI) Championship table as on March 12 which was the cut-off date for the determination of the seedings for the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled for this September in Pakistan.

The ICC Development International (IDI) Board, in its September 2005 meeting, decided that the 2008 tournament would feature the eight top teams as per the ICC ODI Championship table exactly six months prior to the scheduled start of the tournament.

The eight teams are split into two groups of four with a round-robin format in operation. The top two sides from each group will progress to the semifinals with the winners of these matches contesting the final.

Source:Cricket News