Twenty20 Champions League Unveiled
The format for the new Twenty20 Champions League has been announced with the participation of English county sides still unclear.
The eight-team Twenty20 Champions League, which will take place in India between 29th September and 8th October, will include two teams each from India, South Africa and Australia with a further two sides to be added from either England, Pakistan or New Zealand.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is at loggerheads with the Indian organisers of the tournament over a number of issues including player eligibility and how the revenue derived from the event will be distributed.
The prize money on offer at the tournament has been set at £3m with the inaugural tournament featuring eight teams who will play 15 matches at three venues – Jaipur, New Delhi and Mohali – but that number will increase to 12 teams playing 23 matches in 2009.
The teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
The competition will see the top two domestic sides from each of the competing nations take part with the participating English counties, dependent on a compromise deal being reached, to come from the finalists of the Twenty20 Cup.
Confirmed as competing in this year’s tournament so far are the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings – the two finalists of the Indian Premier League; Victoria Bushrangers and the Western Warriors from Australia and South Africa’s Titans and Dolphins sides.
English teams might not be allowed to play because the Board of Cricket Control of India is refusing to back down on its ruling that no counties who have fielded players who played in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL) – a rival to the International Cricket Council (ICC)-sanctioned Indian Premier League (IPL) – will be allowed to compete in the Champions League.
Under that ruling, Twenty20 Cup winners Middlesex, who have no ICL players, are eligible for the Champions League – but the BCCI objects to beaten finalists Kent taking part because they have two players who turned out in the ICL – Pakistan’s Azhar Mahmood and South Africa’s Justin Kemp.
The announcement of the format also suggests that talks of England organising a rival Champions League in Abu Dhabi look over, as South Africa and Australia have sided with India.
