The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 : is an international Twenty20 cricket competition between clubs from India, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies. The Twenty20 Champions League is chaired by Lalit Modi, who is the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and Vice-President of the BCCI. The competition was launched in 2008 as a response to the success of national Twenty20 domestic cricket leagues, most notably the Indian Premier League.[1] The first edition was set to take place from late September to early October 2008 in India, after the tournament organisers resolved various teething problems that had put the inaugural tournament under some doubt,[2] but it was later announced that the tournament would be held from December 3 to December 10, 2008.[3] The tournament was postponed again following terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008[4] and later cancelled,[5] with the first tournament now scheduled for October 2009. Indian mobile service Bharti Airtel has bought the title sponsorship rights of the champions league for the reported amount of Rs. 170cr (USD 37 million).[6]
Background
Main article: Twenty20
An international tournament for domestic cricket teams is believed to have been first mooted by Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1996, Lalit Modi is also the chairman and commissioner on the IPL.[7] The launch and subsequent success of Twenty20 cricket some years later was the influence behind a serious effort to get such a tournament off the ground. Twenty20 cricket was launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003.[8] Its launch was a result of a long-term decline in the popularity of county championship and domestic limited-overs cricket. By reducing the number of overs per innings to twenty and by placing a three hour limit on matches, the format was designed to attract a younger crowd and to boost attendances.[8] Twenty20 proved a success, with an international version, International 20:20 Club Championship, launched in 2005 and a World Twenty20 Competition held in September 2007. This proved much more popular than the 50 over Cricket World Cup had been just five months previously.[9] The following year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched, proving that there could be a market for a big-spending domestic Twenty20 cricket league.[10] The success of Twenty20 and the IPL lead many commentators to suggest that other forms of cricket would suffer, with some worrying about the effect of the popular fast-paced 'slogging' game on players' abilities in Test cricket.[10][11]
Immediately after the end of the first series of the IPL, the cricket authorities in England, India, Australia and South Africa entered into discussions to create a new international club competition, to capitalize on this success.[1] The new tournament's $2.5m winning prize was described as "unprecedented" in cricket.[1] A number of different formats for the tournament were considered, with original proposals containing a much lower prize fund.[12] The T20 Champions League's creation was announced on 7 June 2008, along with the announcement of planned restructuring of some of the domestic cricket tournaments involved, including the introduction of franchising in South Africa, England and Australia.[7]
Format
Qualifying
Although the 2008 tournament was originally rumoured to only include teams from Australia, South Africa, India and England, it was announced on 4 July 2008, that two teams from Pakistan's domestic tournament were also invited. At the same time, England's participation was also put into doubt, following differences between the ECB & BCCI over the inclusion of rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) players.[13] For the 2009 tournament, the winners of Pakistan's domestic Twenty20 tournament were prevented from taking part as their government had barred travel to India.[14] The competition was confirmed as being open to:
• The winners, runners-up and third placed team of the Indian Premier League in India.
• The winners and runners-up of the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia.
• The winners and runners-up of the Standard Bank Pro 20 Series in South Africa.
• The winners and runners-up of the Twenty20 Cup in England and Wales.
• The winners of the State Twenty20 from New Zealand.
• The winners of the Stanford 20/20 from West Indies.
• The winners of the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 from Sri Lanka.
Tournament
The 2009 Champions League will be contested by 12 teams. It will start with a round robin format, with 4 pools of 3 teams. The top 2 teams from each pool will advance to a league stage, consisting of two pools of four teams. The top two from each league will progress to a knock-out competition of two rounds. A total 19 matches will be played over a 16 day period.
