The Champions League T20 format and schedule may not yet be out, but the teams that are definite out of the tournament are the ones from England. With the English first class dates clashing with the Champions League T20, the ECB has decided not to send their two sides for the tournament, and this means that there will be only ten teams in the tournament.
However, that does not prevent the ECB from going ahead with their T20 Cup, or the Friends Provident T20 Trophy that got underway on the 1st of June, with the game between the last year’s winner, Sussex and runner-up Somerset.
And much like last year, Sussex hammered Somerset at Hove, after piling on 155/7 in 20 overs. Luke Wright’s 39 at the top of the innings was the highest score, but that was enough for the side to win by 52 runs. Craig Kieswetter celebrated his call-up to international cricket with a 47, but none of the rest including captain Marcus Trescothick got going and the hosts won easily.
Sussex then won their second game of the tournament as well, as they beat Middlesex by 28 runs. Middlesex had contracted Adam Gilchrist for this season, but he failed with the bat.
In two of the other interesting games, Loots Bosman messed up the Yorkshire bowlers with a 50-ball 94, to win the game for Derbyshire by 65 runs, whereas Hampshire made heavy weather of the target of 115 set by Kent, before winning with two balls to spare.
The format of the tournament works like this. The 18 counties are divided into two groups based on their location, called the North Group and the South Group. Each of the nine teams in each of the groups then play against each other twice, on a home and away basis. Based on the results and the points table, the top four sides from each group qualify for the quarter-finals of the Friend’s Provident T20 tournament.
These eight sides then go on to play in the quarter-finals, and then, the winners of the quarters will play in the semi-finals and then the final. Earlier, both the finalists went on to qualify for the Champions League T20, but for this year, that will not be possible and hence the sides will probably not be motivated enough for the same.
Earlier, this tournament was called the T20 Cup, and has been played since 2003. Surrey won the inaugural edition of the tournament, and then, they were runner-up in 2004, before being losing semi-finalists in 2005 and 2006. The 2004 edition was won by Leicestershire, who then went on to win it again in 2006, with Somerset winning it in 2005 under Graeme Smith. Kent won in 2007, Middlesex in 2008 and Sussex are the defending champions by beating Somerset in 2009.
Warwickshire have entered the quarter-final of all the editions except 2006. Any guesses who will win the tournament this season?
The Aussie selectors’ decision to continue with Michael Clarke hardly came as a surprise, despite all the debate and speculation surrounding the same. After all, Clarke is no Mark Taylor to retain his place by the virtue of his captaincy alone, and many of the Clarke-critics had thought that this was the best opportunity to groom a new guy in the role. Unfortunately for them, it did not happen.
Consistency and continuity:
Like has always been the case, the Australian selectors have always been an epitome of continuity. There have been many examples in the past as well, starting from the times of Mark Taylor, and even after Ricky Ponting became the first ever Australian captains in more than half a century to lose two Ashes. The captain did not get the sack, and that was probably because the selectors had faith in the guy.
In fact, this is a trait that runs in the Aussies. Why the players, even the selectors were spared after some shocking selections throughout the previous edition of the Ashes. It was almost a given that the selectors would be given a boot after the Ashes fiasco, but they were persisted with and the side was soon on their winning ways again.
The same logic seems to have been applied to the Clarke, the captain of the T20 game.
Future captaincy prospect?
The other reason why I can think of the continuation of Clarke as a captain is because one gets the sense that he will also take on the responsibility of the role from Ricky Ponting in the other formats of the game once Ponting is done with the game.
Now, personally I think that if Clarke were to be chucked out of the T20I format without being afforded the rightful opportunities, this could end up inflicting some confidence issues on him when he takes on the bigger role of leading the side in Tests and ODIs. And given the way things are, there do not seem too many others in the Australian camp that could take up the role of the captaincy in the other two formats of the game.
But what about back problems?
That is the one point that can be rationally brought into the conversation. Clarke’s career hasn’t been injury free and his back has given him enough trouble to last a lifetime. He has almost quit bowling as regularly as he did earlier, and the question that seems to be worrying some of the experts is that the excessive load of T20 cricket, both, as the captain and a batsman, could make life miserable for the talented batsman. And if Clarke does decide to play in the IPL, things could become even more tough for someone with the back issues.
On a notice?
All said and done, the two T20Is against Pakistan, to be played in England, will be a litmus test for Clarke. Another couple of failures could make him susceptible to a lot of blame again and that could well make it difficult to sustain him as the captain of the side.
Mohammad Yousuf must be a changed man. There cannot be any other way to describe him otherwise. For a cricketer who quit Pakistani cricket in a huff to join the rebel Indian Cricket League T20, then had events flipping and flopping between the two extremes of being a Pakistani international cricketer to being christened a pariah to their cricket, to being selected as the captain of the side, his recent worry on how Pakistani cricket was suffering due to the excesses of T20 makes him go a long way in their cricket.
Probably Yousuf does understand that if anything, his T20 career is all but finished. It was done and dusted even before the teams went to South Africa for the 2007 edition of the ICC World T20, when the selectors had refused to select him in the squad. Mind you, his international career had been on a relative high at that moment, but the wise men clearly saw what he hadn’t; the format needed someone with the penchant to field better than he ever did, and run between the wickets in a manner that Yousuf would have probably never imagined in his life. So, almost three years after that fateful unacceptability of change, the batsman seems to have reconciled to his fate and realised that the likes of ICC World T20 and IPL may not be his cuppa coffee anymore. Especially after not a single team wanted to bid for him during the IPL auctions and then, with the deteriorating Indo-Pak relations over the last one year or so.
It is no surprise then, that the Pakistani captain is all of a sudden worried about the future of Pakistani cricket in relation with the T20 cricket. However, and I understand this is only conjecture – and a far-fetched one at that – I would like to see what Yousuf does if he does have the fortune of being selected by one of the franchises in any of the forthcoming IPLs. Sachin Tendulkar has retired from T20 cricket, and so has Ricky Ponting. Will Yousuf reject the contract to set a benchmark and for the betterment of his nation’s international performance? Only time can tell!
Talking of Yousuf and the country that he is touring currently – Australia – the KFC T20 Big Bash got underway this week. The first round of matches saw Queensland take on Victoria, Western Australia play South Australia and Tasmania feature against New South Wales. The incentive is there for all the teams to grab; a chance to represent their side in the Champions League T20 for a multi-million dollar prize money!
New Zealand international cricketer Ross Taylor had been picked up by Victoria in place of Sohail Tanvir and he immediately stuck gold with a 36-ball 58 and took the previous year’s runner-up to 157/8 in their 20 overs after having slumped to 5/3 at one stage. Andrew Symonds’ return lasted all of 14 balls in which he scored 16, but with 37 needed off the last four overs and with four wickets remaining, it could have been anybody’s game. Rain intervened, and the Bulls were fund four runs short of the target.
South Australia then had their international stars, Keiron Pollard and Shahid Afridi, win their first game against Western Australia. First, Pollard spanked a 31-ball 45, and then Afridi ran through the WA innings with a 4/19 in his four overs.
In the third game, Dave Warner of the NSW Blues smacked the quickest fifty ever in the competition off 18 balls, and despite a strong start by Tim Paine – 48 off 18 – the rest of the Tasmanians collapsed to 163 all out to hand the opposition over a 32-run win.
On the 28th of december the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash will set to rock Australia and the world with quality competition.
You may have seen them in the CLT20...
VB Bushrangers
RTA SpeedBlitz Blues
Along with more teams:
XXXX Gold Queensland Bulls
PKF Tasmanian Tigers
Retravision Warriors
West End Redbacks
Dates:
Starts 28th of December 2009
Final played on 23rd January 2009
Watch at T20cricket.Asia soon for an Official Schedule for the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash!
- December 23, 2009
- article by admin
- 0 comments
One of the best batsmen on display
As the cricket fans around the world brace themselves for the third season of the Indian Premier League, the little known Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament got underway last month in India. The league stage of the tournament ended with ten teams making it to the second stage. The second round of the tournament will be played next year from the 12th of March – coincidentally, the same day as the third edition of the Indian Premier League!
The Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament is an inter-state, domestic T20 tournament in India. The first season was supposed to happen last season, but did not take off due to the lack of dates in the calendar! The format of the trophy is based on that of the Ranji trophy, where teams from every zone in the country – North, East, West, South and Central – play against sides from their own zone. The top two sides from every zone at the end of the round robin qualify for the second stage with six of the those ten getting a bye into the quarter-finals, while the remaining four fighting it out in the pre-quarter-final knock-out.
The biggest news of the tournament came in the form of Rajasthan not being allowed to play in the tournament because of the issues within the state association. This meant that the Central Zone had only four sides vying for the two slots for the next round. Madhya Pradesh won all their three games, while Railways won two of theirs to qualify for the next round.
Both North Zone and South Zone were expected to be the toughest groups given that each of them had six teams each. This would have made qualification for the two sides even more difficult. As it turned out, the South Zone games were badly hit by rain as nine out of the 15 were declared no-result. Amidst this, Tamil Nadu won the two games it managed to play – with three abandoned – against lowly Kerala and Goa, while Hyderabad needed only one. The Hyderabad side had four of its matches rained off and still managed to get through to the next round! The only match it won had Ambati Rayadu score a half century – a joyous moment for the ICL-return youngster. Karnataka shot itself in the foot as they lost to Goa, thanks to Swapnil Asnodkar’s 48-ball 71 and lost out on the second round.
The North Zone was keenly fought. Going into the last round of games, there were four teams which had the chance of making it to the next round; Punjab (12 points before the last game), Himachal Pradesh (12), Haryana (8), Jammu and Kashmir (4), Delhi (12), Services (0). Despite playing the bottom placed side, Delhi was stretched to the limit by Services, before winning by eight runs and going through. Himachal Pradesh then beat Punjab to get to 16 points as well and snuffed out any chances that Haryana could have had by beating J&K.
The East Zone was the closest of the lot. Three teams, Jharkhand, Assam and Orissa ended with three wins each – out of the four games played. Amongst themselves as well, Assam beat Orissa, Orissa overcame Jharkhand, whereas Jharkhand outplayed Assam! Unfortunately for the Oriyans, they finished third in the group, thanks to a lesser net run rate than the other two. In fact, they fell short of Assam’s NRR by 0.1! Saurabh Tiwary was the captain of the Jharkhand T20 side, and so impressed were the selectors with his leadership skills, that he has also been appointed as the skipper of the side for the longer format of the game – the Ranji trophy.
In the West Zone, Wasim Jaffer’s strong display with the bat ensured that Mumbai ran away to three wins in as many games before losing to Maharashtra. By that time, though, they had already qualified for the second round, while Maharashtra followed soon after with wins over Mumbai and Baroda.
Assam will now play Railways and Jharkhand will take on Himachal Pradesh in the pre-quarters, with the respective winners taking on Delhi and Tamil Nadu in the quarter finals. The other two quarter finals will have Hyderabad face Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh play Maharashtra.
- November 4, 2009
- article by Suneer Chowdhary
- 1 comments
New South Wales celebrate their Champions League victory, New South Wales v Trinidad & Tobago, Champions League Twenty20 final, Hyderabad, October 23, 2009
New South Wales Blues have won the Champions League T20 by beating Trinidad and Tobago in the finals by 41 runs. Brett Lee was the star of the game as he first rescued the Blues from trouble with a 31-ball 48 and then bowled his two overs for ten runs and picked up two wickets.
The Trinidad and Tobago skipper Daren Ganga won the toss and invited the opposition to bat first. Soon enough, the Blues were in trouble as they lost their top four for 47, and the fifth at 75. It required the partnership between two bowlers, Steve Smith and Brett Lee to add 49 for the seventh wicket and take them out of trouble. Smith scored 33, whereas Lee smashed five sixes in his effort.
In reply, the Trinidad and Tobago side went off to a start like they were chasing 200 in the 20 overs and not 160. William Perkins set the ball rolling by being bowled for a duck off the second ball, while the rest followed soon after – TT soon collapsing to 68/5. Ramdin and Pollard then went on to try and rescue the side with some lusty hitting, but with the dismissal of Pollard, the TT hopes also vanished and the NSW Blues were deserving winners.
Lee was not only the man of the match, but also the man of the series for his dazzling show with both, the bat and the ball throughout the tournament.
Main Points
- The 12 teams will initially be divided into four groups of three teams each.
- Top two teams from each Group will qualify for a four team League pool
- The top two teams from each League pool will qualify for the Semi-Finals in Delhi and Hyderabad
- The Champions League Twenty20 will involve a total of 23 matches spread over 16 days.
- The Grand Final to be played in Hyderabad on October 23
- Any more questions please visit the CLT20 FAQ
CLT20 Initial Groupings
|
GROUP A
|
GROUP B
|
GROUP C
|
GROUP D
|
| A1
Deccan Chargers
(India) |
B1
NSW Blues
(Australia) |
C1
Royal Challengers Bangalore
(India) |
D1
Delhi Daredevils
(India) |
| A2
ECB2 [TBD] |
B2
Diamond Eagles
(South Africa) |
C2
Cape Cobras
(South Africa) |
D2
Victorian Bushrangers
(Australia) |
| A3
Trinidad & Tobago
(West Indies) |
B3
ECB1 [TBD] |
C3
Otago Volts
(New Zealand) |
D3
Wayamba
(Sri Lanka) |
CLT20 Starting Time?
8pm on October 8, 2009.
- September 14, 2009
- article by JM
- 1 comments
Frequently Asked Questions on CLT20
Official CLT20 Mission Statement?
The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 is a platform where the world's best domestic teams get the opportunity to pit their cricketing skills against each other.
Who is the primary sponsor and official name of CLT20?
Airtel Champions League Twenty20
What do the King Pins have to say?
Chairman of the CLT20 Lalit Modi said
"Never before has a domestic cricket tournament featured as many cricket superstars as the inaugural CLT20. As expected, almost all eligible international stars have confirmed their attendance at domestic cricket's showpiece event.
Picking a winner of the tournament is impossible. While some of the squads consist almost entirely of international players, there is enough high-class talent in all teams to ensure that no team enters the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 as overwhelming favourites.
With just 30 days to go until the first ball is bowled, today's announcement of the teams is another important milestone as we build towards the first match on October 8."
Dean Kino, Champions League Twenty20 Governing Council Member and Director of Legal and Business Affairs, said:
"When the Champions League Twenty20 concept was first devised by the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, we set out to create a tournament that reflected cricket's global appeal and would be a true test between the best of best.
The quality of players who will line up for their respective teams, coupled with the billions of people who will follow the tournament through host broadcaster ESPN Star Sports, will do this vision justice.
A number of players, including AB de Villiers, Paul Collingwood, Dirk Nannes and Daniel Vettori will represent their 'away' teams in the tournament, highlighting the global nature of domestic Twenty20 cricket."
Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, said:
“The much awaited Champions League Twenty20 has got teams, players and fans brimming with excitement, and the announcement of match schedules for this October’s tournament will certainly raise the levels of anticipation even higher. We are looking forward to showcasing this exciting marquee cricket property across the globe to passionate fans in the most engaging and entertaining manner.”
James Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer, Cricket Australia, said:
"Cricket fans across Australia and the world are indeed eagerly awaiting the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20. The CLT20 is set to build on the success of the KFC Big Bash Twenty20 competition in Australia and elsewhere in a manner which accelerates the development of cricket globally. I am certain that the CLT20 will undoubtedly benefit interstate cricket in Australia and equivalent levels elsewhere, giving players at that level a chance to hone and perfect their cricketing skills when they come up against the best domestic cricketers from around the world."
Gerald Majola, Chief Executive, Cricket South Africa, said:
"The Champions League Twenty20 will electrify global audiences come October, and South African fans will definitely follow their favorite Pro T20 and Indian Premier League teams after the success of Season 2009. I am certain that CLT20 will encourage the pipeline of cricket development from the club, affiliate and franchise levels through to the international arenas. I am sure the global broadcast of the Champions League Twenty20 will ignite the passion of cricket lovers the world over."
Who has Commercial Rights to CLT20?
ESPN STAR Sports is the commercial rights holders for Champions League Twenty20 for a period of 10 years.
Who made the CLT20?
Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa
How much money will the winner make in CLT20?
The 2009 Champions League Twenty20 will offer teams US$6 million in prize money, more than any other competition in world cricket. The prize money will be shared between the teams and their players.
Who is in the CLT20 Governing Council?
Lalit Modi, N. Srinivasan, James Sutherland, Niranjan Shah, Dean Kino and Gerald Majola, together with its founding members.
Who are the Exciting Players to Keep a Watch for?
Graeme Smith, Virender Sehwag, Brett Lee, Brendon McCullum, Paul Collingwood and Dwayne Bravo.
Where can I find a schedule?
Please check the official CLT20 schedule post.
How many Teams are in the CLT20?
12
How many people within a Team?
15
When does the Champions League Twent20 start? Read the rest of this entry...
- September 14, 2009
- article by JM
- 1 comments
Online shops like eBay and Overstock are great places to find cricket bats at discounted prices. Luckily, over at T20 Shop they take the effort out of it by sorting lists of results for cricket bats to show you how easy it is.
- September 11, 2009
- article by JM
- 0 comments
Ricky to Retire from T20I
Ricky Ponting has announced his retirement from international Twenty20 cricket. However, he will continue to lead the Australian side in the ODIs and Test matches. He has also said that he will continue playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
Ponting has taken this decision to prolong his test match and ODI career, and has seemed to gone in a direction opposite to what most cricketers have been going; that is, to retire from the longer format to concentrate on the T20Is and get the riches in.
The decision was conveyed to the chief selector, coach and the current vice-captain, Michael Clarke, who will now take over the reigns of the T20I side. Clarke had captained the T20I side in Ponting’s absence, and currently is also leading the Aussie team in the ODIs as Ponting is back in Australia, resting. However, a formal decision in that regard has not been taken given that the Aussies next play another T20I in February next year only.
Recently, Australia had lost their Ashes series to England, and Ponting had expressed his desire to come back to England and win a test series here. However, the next series in the country will only be in 2013, which makes it difficult for the dream to become reality.
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