| ISLAMABAD: The groups for this September's Champions Trophy in Pakistan have been announced by the ICC, and India, Pakistan and Australia have been seeded together.
Group A comprises of defending champion and top seed Australia along with India, Pakistan and the West Indies while Group B is made up of the winner of the inaugural event, South Africa, as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.
The groupings were made on the basis of teams' rankings in the ICC ODI Championship table on March 12, the agreed cut-off date.
It was decided in 2005 that from 2008 the tournament would only include the top eight one-day sides exactly six months before the start of the tournament. As a result, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who are ranked ninth and tenth, miss out.
The two groups will be played on a round-robin format with the top two sides progressing to the semi-finals. The full tournament schedule and information regarding venues will be announced by the ICC in due course.
Group A Australia (1), India (4), Pakistan (5), West Indies (8)
Group B South Africa (2), New Zealand (3), Sri Lanka (6), England (7).
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