The successful delivery of his twenty-20 baby is hardly over that he is all set to conceive another. After IPL, another twenty-20 venture will keep the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi busy through October. After a series of cancellation, the Champions League is going to see the daylight at last. And when an initiative receives support from a man as enterprising as Lalit Modi, it is doomed to roll on and become a success.

Being a man always in hurry, Modi wasted no time in announcing his grand plan for the twelve team Champions League to be hosted in India in October. He along with Anil Kumble, Adam Gilchrist and few other officials addressed the cricket news media to announce that Champions League Twenty20 tournament is going to be held from October 8 to 29 in India this year.

Twelve teams would participate in the inaugural Champions League tournament, which was originally planned to be held from December 3-11 2008 in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore but was postponed after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The Champions League tournament will consist of Domestic T20 competition winners from several countries including West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, India, Australia and South Africa. IPL champion Deccan Chargers and finalist Royal Challengers will represent India, while Delhi Daredevil will be included as the 12th team for topping the round-robin stage of the 2009 IPL.

Other 2009 domestic finalists and winners include Victoria and New South Wales (Australia), Cape Cobras and Eagles (South Africa), Otago (New Zealand), Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies) and Wayamba (Sri Lanka). We will get to know about which team represents England only after England’s twenty-20 cup ends on August 25. However, Sialkot Stallions, the winners of Pakistan's domestic T-20 tournament, will not feature as originally scheduled because of their government’s restrictions.

The twelve teams would be divided into four groups consisting of three teams each. There will be a total of 23 matches with each team playing on a league basis. The top two teams from each group move on to the second stage. From there it will be the fight for the slots in semi finals. The top four teams will be eligible for the semi-finals.

The high point of this tournament definitely is its huge prize money that has been pegged at $6 million. “The biggest prize money ever, even bigger than the World Cup,” said Modi. Last year’s IPL finalists Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings will not be eligible and this has been a huge blow for these two teams, as they missed on at least US$250,000 as participating fees. Each team is supposed to draw a minimum guarantee amount for participating in the tournament.

The venues are not yet decided; venues will be finalized by a draw to be held in London on June 23.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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