Chennai Super Kings gamers have a good time after profitable the CLT20 trophy defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru on April 6, 2014.
| Photo Credit: PTI
About 10 years after its final version was performed, “active conversations” are going down between cricket boards of India, Australia and England to revive the Champions League, a club-based worldwide T20 competitors.
The final version of the CLT20 was held in India in 2014 with Chennai Super Kings profitable the title after defeating Kolkata Knight Riders in the ultimate at Bengaluru, with the version involving three groups from India, two every from Australia and South Africa and one group from Pakistan, the West Indies and New Zealand.
As many as six editions of the CLT20 had been performed between 2009-10 to 2014-15, with 4 of those being organised in India and two in South Africa. The event was received twice every by Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, whereas Australia’s New South Wales and Sydney Sixers received it one time every.
While the cricket calendar stays jam-packed, the most important problem can be to discover a window for reviving such an occasion, mentioned Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins, who’s conscious of the conversations going down between the three greatest boards in worldwide cricket.
“I think the (earlier edition of) Champions League was ahead of its time. The T20 landscape wasn’t matured enough at that point. I think it is now,” Cummins informed the media through the announcement of its partnership with KheloMore to launch the Melbourne Cricket Academy in India.
“I know that there’s active conversations between Cricket Australia (CA), ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) and the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) about (reviving) the Champions League,” he mentioned.
“It’s just trying to find a window as to when you actually play that, because you’ve also got all the ICC tournaments as well. It maybe (the case) that the first iteration of the Champions League will be of the women…. (it may involve cricketers playing in the) the WPL, the Hundred and the WBBL,” he added.
Cummins mentioned he has been in common talks with CA’s CEO Nick Hockley for the revival of CLT20 however added that BCCI secretary Jay Shah may additionally shed some gentle on it.
“I’m constantly talking to Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia CEO, for a Champions League, because I think it’s pretty important to bring that back,” he mentioned.
“There are talks about it. It’s probably a question to ask Jay Shah (BCCI secretary). But certainly, from an Australia cricket perspective, we are very open to the idea of the Champions League. It’s just about finding a window in the FTP, but I think that’s the next step in the evolution of cricket,” he added.
Cummins drew comparability between the club-based worldwide competitors like Champions League in soccer, saying that cricket is in an identical section of discovering the stability between worldwide and club-based competitions.
“We still haven’t made out which league is the best. IPL, PSL or the Big Bash? The only way we can show that is by having the Melbourne Stars play Karachi Kings or the Mumbai Indians,” Cummins mentioned.
“Our great aspiration is to have the Indian players play in the Big Bash,” he mentioned.
“(The) Champions League is well overdue. Look at what Champions League does for football, the World Cup is fantastic and the Champions League is there (too) every time.
“The thought of the Mumbai Indians enjoying the Melbourne Stars on the MCG can be simply as thrilling as India enjoying Australia on the MCG,” he added.
