Here's yet another T20 league on the international circuit! The Champions League T20 is into its fifth year now and somehow, when coupled in the same year as the Indian Premier League, one would feel it seems rather annoyingly redundant. But there's something different about the CLT20 this year (or there at least was) - we had a Pakistan team; although the Faisalabad Wolves, overawed by the rare opportunity to visit their 'superpower neighbor', caved in during the course of the qualifiers and ensured their non-participation in the main draw. There were wild dogs howling everywhere even before the Wolves landed in India with radical Hindutva agents saying Pakistan should cease to be recognized as a nation following their antics on the border and the Indian government officials conveniently sleeping over the players' visas until a day or two before their arrival. In the end, all that turned out to be a non-event with the Wolves, save for the unflappable Misbah, succumbing to all and sundry in the three games they played.
That then leaves us in the main draw with 4 Indian teams (well, for all technical purposes, you can count Mitchell Johnson and Dwayne Bravo to be Indian too for now), 2 South African and Australian teams each, and 1 team each from the Caribbean and New Zealand. The Sri Lankans and Pakistanis lost their only representatives in the qualifying stages and will now have to shift loyalties to their 'superpower neighbor' if they want to partake any further in the tournament.
Crowds thus far at the CLT20 have been abysmally thin and that brings to my point on why the CLT20 still is a redundant phenomenon. The CLT20 was thought to have been conceptualized back in 2009 in order to have a fair competition between the best clubs of each league in the world. That was what I thought at least 4 years ago. But now when I come to think of it, when 40% of the main draw is Indian and the semifinals by all means might be 100% Indian, the CLT20 is not much different from the IPL T20 after all. Barring the Indian domination, the Bangladeshis didn't have a representative even in the qualifying stages and for unofficially known reasons, the English have been forbidden from taking part in a game they themselves invented. This clearly isn't a league of champions; it's a league of Indians garnished with a handful of other teams.
The question now is whether the CLT20 really needs to take place at all. In its current format, certainly not. Although T20 cricket is rather entertaining and watching Kieron Pollard tonk sixes anywhere is mesmerizing, there's only so much of it that fans can really relate to passionately enough. Anything overdone is unessential and more so when it's done in so redundant and pointless a fashion as the CLT20 currently is. The BCCI needs to rethink this tournament before it throws away the charm of the game. But maybe for the greater good, the BCCI shouldn't have veto powers in the matter at all.
That then leaves us in the main draw with 4 Indian teams (well, for all technical purposes, you can count Mitchell Johnson and Dwayne Bravo to be Indian too for now), 2 South African and Australian teams each, and 1 team each from the Caribbean and New Zealand. The Sri Lankans and Pakistanis lost their only representatives in the qualifying stages and will now have to shift loyalties to their 'superpower neighbor' if they want to partake any further in the tournament.
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The question now is whether the CLT20 really needs to take place at all. In its current format, certainly not. Although T20 cricket is rather entertaining and watching Kieron Pollard tonk sixes anywhere is mesmerizing, there's only so much of it that fans can really relate to passionately enough. Anything overdone is unessential and more so when it's done in so redundant and pointless a fashion as the CLT20 currently is. The BCCI needs to rethink this tournament before it throws away the charm of the game. But maybe for the greater good, the BCCI shouldn't have veto powers in the matter at all.
