Champions League Twenty20 - Champions of Domestic Cricket Unite
by Juris Graney
When the dust settles after a month of cricket following the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 tournament, the team left standing will be rightly called the best domestic team in the world.
Well the best domestic team in the world that competed in the Champions League Twenty20 competition at least.
After all, not every cricketing nation is taking part and not every domestic cricket team had the chance to take part in the tournament.
But in what has been a long time coming and what will no doubt set the bar high for years to come, the inaugural tournament is a base, a base that will be built on.
While the success of the Indian Premier League has assured the future of Twenty20 cricket, the Champions League will propel this ultra-short form of the game into the lounge rooms of fans the world over.
Where else do you get to see national team mates get to play against each other domestically on a world stage that offers them riches the likes never seen before in cricket.
When the total prize money sits at US$6 million, the winner of which receives US$2.5 million, the competition is going to be fast furious and extremely interesting.
Before a ball was bowled, the tournament suffered set backs. Terrorist attacks in India in November 2008, forced the cancellation of the tournament.
“Teething” problems, which in real words means getting each country’s cricket boards to agree to terms on financial and talent grands, had already postponed the tournament so when the terrorist attacks occurred, there was a real chance that the event might never get off the ground.
But backing from the Board of Cricket Control in India meant it would happen and thus we arrive at October 2009.
And like most ICC endorsed events, the format is pretty easy to understand.
The tournament is broken into four pools each consisting of three teams. Those teams will each play two league games then one team will be eliminated from the event. The two top pool teams will move to the second stage and four teams from the second stage will make it to the semi finals.
All the matches will be played in India either at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Feroz Shah Kotla cricket ground in Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
There is a total of 23 matches played over a 16-day period in the inaugural edition of CLT20 and all of those will be covered by BetUS.com so make sure you check back each day for the latest match previews and reviews and cricket odds and lines.
