The Champions Trophy 2009

The ICC Champions Trophy kicks off today in South Africa. Weary England barely have time to breathe before their first match - Sri Lanka on Friday.

What is the Champions Trophy?

A mini, less-important World Cup, this year to be contested by the eight highest ranked ODI sides in the world. Contrary to popular opinion, that includes England.

Australia won the last tournament in 2006, and England reached the final in 2004, before losing in improbable fashion to the West Indies. The odds for those two reaching this year's final are not high.

Do England have a chance?

In theory everyone does, which is rare for a major international tournament in any sport. It's the top eight sides in the world, all of whom have been proficient in this format at different times. However, in practice it would appear we can cross England (and the West Indies) off the list of potential winners due to dire form, crass home ODI series scheduling and non-stop cricket for a core group of players. That said, whether they're recovering from defeat to Holland in the World T20, or demolition by Australia at Headingley, England seem intent on styling themselves as comeback kings. This would be their neatest trick yet.

Are they taking the right squad?

Seemingly not, although they were hampered by a squad submission deadline which predated Jonathan Trott's reintroduction to international cricket. The luxury of a post-Australia ODI series decision would have been ideal, but it gives the consistently average performers (Morgan, Bopara, Bresnan) the chance to snuff out a few question marks.

Who will win it?

Take your pick between the top sides in the world. South Africa have the local knowledge and will be fresher than most England players will remember being since their teenage years. Australia have some serious form behind them, and Pakistan are capable of literally anything - which could be good or bad - but I'm going for Sri Lanka.

Strong batting, led by Tillakaratne Dilshan, who's been unstoppable in one-day cricket for the past year, and thrived on the South African pitches during an explosive IPL spell with the Delhi Daredevils, is backed up by the irrepressible four Ms attack: Mathews, Malinga, Mendis and Muralitharan. England have practically no time to consider this prospect before they meet it head on. It's probably just as well.

It's a big tournament for...

Everyone - England are crying out for a new one-day hero - but Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah in particular. Collingwood has been a fine limited-overs player for England, and has usually managed to up his game when required in the past. This is one such time, as the burden of all-year-round cricket, across three formats, is starting to see his form slide.

Shah is in better touch than his scores in the NatWest series suggest, but his Benny Hill impersonation between the wickets and genuinely poor fielding must have put him in somewhere approaching last chance territory.

Who cares?

Well no-one usually, the Champions Trophy having been out-muscled in recent times by its bullish yet disorganised big brother - the World Cup. However, this year it's perilously close to actually meaning something. Recent 50-over World Cups have been woefully administrated, this is the ICC's chance to show lessons have been learned. Interest here - and in Australia - is likely to be fragile and entirely performance-dependent, but this time that's thanks to the ECB's late-summer flogging of both the format and the players, rather than the ICC.

The 50-over game itself has been taking a battering - from fans, commentators and players alike. England have done it no favours over the past few weeks - the rest of the world now have a prime opportunity to rectify that.