August 13, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 10, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 12: The International Cricket Council on Tuesday announced a revised schedule of next month’s Champions Trophy after dropping Rawalpindi as one of the three venues.

According to the new programme, all the matches will now be confined to Lahore and Karachi with tournament starting from Sept 12 instead of Sept 11. Lahore will stage eight matches while Karachi will host seven games in the 15-match tournament.

In the original schedule, which was announced in March, Rawalpindi was scheduled to stage five matches including the game between defending champions Australia and hosts Pakistan and the second semi-final.

That semi-final will now be played in Lahore on Sept 26 with the final two days later in the same city.

Following is the revised schedule of ICC Champions Trophy:

Sept 12: Pakistan v West Indies (Lahore).

Sept 13: Australia v India (Karachi).

Sept 14: England v Sri Lanka (Lahore).

Sept 14: South Africa v New Zealand (Karachi).

Sept 15: Pakistan v Australia (Karachi).

Sept 16: South Africa v Sri Lanka (Lahore).

Sept 17: England v New Zealand (Lahore).

Sept 18: India v West Indies (Karachi).

Sept 19: New Zealand v Sri Lanka (Lahore).

Sept 20: Pakistan v India (Karachi).

Sept 21: Australia v West Indies (Lahore).

Sept 21: England v South Africa (Karachi).

Sept 24: First semi-final (Karachi).

Sept 26: Second semi-final (Lahore).

Sept 28: Final (Lahore).