ICC Champions Trophy 2006 flashback: The invincible Aussies complete their trophy collection

Semi-final

The first semi-final was a Tran-Tasman affair, and the Australian seam attack continued their impressive form to get their side to the finals for the first time in the history of the tournament. Defending 240 at Mohali, Glenn McGrath made it a no-contest as he wrecked the Kiwi top order with 3 wickets in his opening spell. Though there was some late resistance from Daniel Vettori, New Zealand fell short of the target by 36 runs.

It was an all-too-familiar story for South Africa who failed in the semi final, again. Batting first, they did well to reach to set a target of 259 before running into a rampaging Chris Gayle. The Proteas bowling attack, which had been brilliant in the event so far, quite inexplicably lost its composure in the crunch game and the big Jamaican took full advantage and saw his team through with an unbeaten 133.

The Final

There were some talks about shifting the final to another venue because of poor pitch condition at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, but it went ahead as scheduled. Gayle, with three centuries in the tournament, was clearly the danger man and he, along with Chanderpaul, got West Indies off to a flyer. The Caribbean calypso, however, was short lived as Nathan Bracken bowled an incisive spell to trigger a dramatic collapse. Chasing a modest 139 (revised to 116 from 35 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis method), the Australians hardly broke a sweat and went on to pick up the only trophy missing from their impressive cabinet.

Controversies

A tap on the shoulder and a push from the dias. During the presentation ceremony after the finals, the Australians showed how eager they were to get their hands on the elusive trophy when they allegedly ‘misbehaved’ with the then-BCCI president Sharad Pawar. Several political bodies sought action against the champions, but the situation was doused after Ponting tendered an apology to Pawar.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were banned for having used performance-enhancing drugs

There were troubles at the start of the event as well when Pakistani fast bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, were asked to leave after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone in pre-tournament drug tests. Though the bans were overturned later on appeal, the incident made many wonder how rampant doping is in cricket.

The historic Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai made a return to the international fold after a hiatus of 11 years, but the return was far from pleasant. The pitch at the stadium came under severe scrutiny as it often crumbled and was deemed unfit for international fixtures. Amidst calls for shifting the final to another venue, Andy Atkinson, the ICC’s pitches consultant, was summoned to take care of the emergency situation.

The controversies, poor timing of the event, uncharacteristic pitches and sub-standard cricket – the tournament wasn’t the advertisement ODIs were looking for and, by the end, many heaved a sigh of relief that it was done with. With the Ashes round the corner and the ‘real’ World Cup in the West Indies few months away, the cricketing world lost little time in getting the event out of their system. Around the same time, T20 cricket was starting to make its presence felt and, for the first time, there were doubts over the future of the 50-over version of the game.