T20 Champions League: The countdown begins

Come September, and the action once again shifts back to South Africa. South Africa in the past 2 years has hosted a plethora of world events and has become the sports capital of the world. Now, after a successful organisation of FIFA world Cup, the rainbow nation is looking forward to hosting the second edition of lucrative T-20 Champions League.

The 2^nd edition of the T-20 Champions League, which features top teams from T-20 leagues of India, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies, gets underway in Johannesburg on September 10 with IPL runner up Mumbai Indians facing South African side Lions. This time around, there are no teams from England as their cricket board refused to adjust the dates of their domestic season to avoid a clash with the lucrative league.

Airtel Champions League: get ready for another T20 extravaganza2010

Champions League has a new format which will see two groups of five teams each competing in a round-robin format, with the top two sides from each group qualifying for the semi finals.

This new format is a departure from the 2009 edition, which had four groups of three teams, with the two teams from each group advancing to another league stage which determined the semi-finalists.

The two groups are:

Group A: Chennai Super Kings (India), Victoria Bushrangers (Australia), Warriors (SA), Wayamba (Sri Lanka), Central Stags (NZ)

Group B: Mumbai Indians (India), Lions (SA), South Australia (Australia), Royal Challengers Bangalore (India), winners of West Indies domestic.

The 2009 champions, the New South Wales Blues, did not qualify for the 2010 Champions League.

Speaking of players, there are many who have qualified to play for two teams. Some of them are Jacques Kallis (Warriors, Bangalore), Mark Boucher (Warriors, Bangalore), Makhaya Ntini (Warriors, Chennai ), Kieron Pollard (South Australia, Mumbai), Dwayne Bravo (Victoria, Mumbai) and Cameron White (Victorian, Bangalore).

New Zealand’s Ross Taylor is in unique dilemma with the batsman having qualified for as many as three different teams for the event. This dashing batsman became the first player ever in the short history of CLT20 to qualify for three teams. Now he has to choose between home team Central Stags and away team Victoria and Royal Challengers. An ‘away’ team would have to pay USD 200,000 to the ‘home’ team to avail the service of such a player.

Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo could well join Ross Taylor if last year’s runner up Trinidad and Tobago win the domestic T20 event and qualify for CLT20 2010. Kieron Pollard is already with Mumbai and South Australia whereas his compatriot Dwayne Bravo is with Victoria and Mumbai.

BCCI President and Airtel CLT20 Chairman Shashank Manohar hopes this tournament would revolutionize modern day T20 cricket and said, “ With 100 international stars qualified to participate through one or more of their Twenty20 teams, fans will be treated to daily battle between the world’s best cricketers”. The finals of this mega event will be held in Johannesburg on September 26.

The complete itinerary of the Champions League T-20 is:

DATE	TEAM 1		TEAM 2	VENUE
Fri 10 Sep	Mumbai Indians	v	Highveld Lions	Johannesburg
Sat 11 Sep	Warriors	v	Wayamba Elevens	Port Elizabeth
	Chennai Super Kings	v	Central Stags	Durban
Sun 12 Sep	Highveld Lions	v	South Australian Redbacks	Centurion
	Royal Challengers Bangalore	v	TBC	Centurion
Mon 13 Sep	Warriors	v	Victorian Bushrangers	Port Elizabeth
Tue 14 Sep	Mumbai Indians	v	South Australian Redbacks	Durban
Wed 15 Sep	Victorian Bushrangers	v	Central Stags	Centurion
	Chennai Super Kings	v	Wayamba Elevens	Centurion
Thu 16 Sep	Mumbai Indians	v	TBC	Durban
Fri 17 Sep	South Australian Redbacks	v	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Durban
Sat 18 Sep	Warriors	v	Central Stags	Port Elizabeth
	Chennai Super Kings	v	Victorian Bushrangers	Port Elizabeth
Sun 19 Sep	Highveld Lions	v	TBC	Johannesburg
	Mumbai Indians	v	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Durban
Mon 20 Sep	Victorian Bushrangers	v	Wayamba Elevens	Centurion
Tue 21 Sep	South Australian Redbacks	v	TBC	Johannesburg
	Highveld Lions	v	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Johannesburg
Wed 22 Sep	Wayamba Elevens	v	Central Stags	Port Elizabeth
	Chennai Super Kings	v	Warriors	Port Elizabeth
Fri 24 Sep	Semi Final 1 1st Group A v 2nd Group B			Durban
Sat 25 Sep	Semi Final 2 1st Group B v 2nd Group A			Centurion
Sun 26 Sep	Airtel CLT20 Final (Winner Semi Final 1 v Winner Semi Final 2)			Johannesburg