The History Of The Champions League Twenty20
Champions League Twenty20 was an international Twenty20 Cricket competition that pitted top teams from significant cricket nations against each other. The competition was often referred to by fans as CLT20. The first edition of the competition took place in 2008, and matches were held annually from that point on.
This competition sprung out of Twenty20 cricket, which was launched by England and Wales in 2003. The early tournaments that these countries held were very popular, and other nations quickly scrambled to create their own Twenty20 competitions. This international tournament was an attempt to capitalise on that success.
Unfortunately, the competition struggled to gain traction with cricket fans. Viewership for the competition was fairly low, which means many sponsors simply weren’t interested. While a 2015 tournament was initially planned, the 2014 tournament wound up being the last one.
Although viewership ratings for the tournament were low, the tournament had plenty of support from the moment that it was founded. The prize pool of $6 million was described as the largest prize pool for any cricket tournament. ESPN Star Sports paid a whopping $900 million for the global broadcasting rights.
Every edition of the tournament had a different type of format, and the number of teams participating in the tournament varied from one year to the next. There was a group stage of the tournament, followed by a two-round knockout stage. In 2011, a qualifying round was introduced.
According to the rules of the tournament, every team is able to choose a squad of 15 players. Teams are able to field up to four international players. An exception was made for the Mumbai Indians in 2011. They only had seven players available to play, which mean they would not have been able to participate in the tournament if they could not field more international players. They were permitted to include five international players on their team.
These recruiting rules were occasionally a source of controversy. The Indian Premier League created player contracts that stated that they had first rights over players, even if they qualified to play for another team. In the history of the tournament, there was only one player that chose another team over his IPL team: Kumar Sangakkara. He chose to play for another team after his team, the Kandurata Maroons, failed to advance in 2013.
New South Wales Blues managed to win the tournament by 41 runs in 2009, while the Chennai Super Kings won by 8 wickets in 2010. In 2011, the Mumbai Indians won by 31 wons. The Sydney Sixers won by 10 wickets in 2012, and the Mumbai Indians won again by 33 runs in 2013. The victors of the final tournament were the Chennai Super Kings, who won by 8 wickets in 2014.
The competition primarily took place in India. It was also held in South Africa in 2010 and 2012. While competitions could have also been held in Australia, the weather in September kept it from being chosen for the match. India was a frequent choice because of the broadcasting agreement.
