Bye Bye Champions League T20 tournament
Cricket authorities have decided to do away with the Champions League T20 tournament, with immediate effect. The decision was taken unanimously by representatives of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA). This decision comes in the wake of the suspension order of CSK and Rajasthan Royals for two years by SC to promote clean cricket.
Managed by the cricket boards of India, England, Australia and South Africa, the league was named the Champions Twenty20 League. The event would span across 9 days in October 2008 and have $ 6 million as the prize money. The top two teams from each of the ongoing domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, England, South Africa and Australia would take part in the league.
Middle East or India was decided as the location for the star-studded league to be held in September. Discussions about the launch were held between the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Australia, Board for the Control of Cricket in India and Cricket South Africa and were followed by the announcement about the league. The league came after the grand success of IPL.
In December 2008, due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks the tournament which was to be held from 3-11 December was rescheduled to October 2009.
The 2010 edition of CLT20 in South Africa had 36% more viewers than the 2009 event in India. The viewership for the final match between IPL champions Chennai Super Kings and South Africa's Warriors was more than double the viewership of the 2009 final. The global viewership stood at 77.7 million which surpassed last year's numbers by 12.7 million.
Logistical hinderances led to CLT20 shifting its next edition to the South African shores. The tournament coincided with the monsoons and Durga Puja celebrations in India, which most likely became the prime reason behind the shift to South Africa. This edition of the Champions League Twenty20 was the first one to witness the participation of a team from Pakistan.
Champions Cricket League T20's $6 million prize money pool is the highest for a club cricket tournament in the history of the game of cricket with $2.5 million for individual winners.
The 2013 CLT20 in India saw participation from Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Lokuarachchi was one of the nine players implicated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) match-fixing scandal in August. He played for Dhaka Gladiators in the BPL. Siddharth Trivedi of Rajasthan Royals, convicted of a similar offence, was however still serving a one-year ban.
There might be a second IPL season in 2015 while the CLT20 may be scrapped. BCCI is contemplating replacing the CLT20 with a mini-IPL to be played in the UAE in September. The top 4 IPL teams are expected to take part in IPL2. The major reason behind this move seems to be the deteriorating crowds at the tournaments.
