2008 Champions League Twenty20

The 2008 Champions League Twenty20 was scheduled to be the first edition of the Champions League Twenty20, an international club cricket tournament. It was due to be held in India between December 3 and December 10, 2008,[1] where the winners were to earn around US$6 million. The bombing attacks in Mumbai just one week prior to the tournament resulted in its postponement.[2] It was proposed that the tournament be held in early 2009, though dates for its rearrangement could not be found and the tournament was cancelled on December 12, 2008.[3] The league was planned and successfully executed as the 2009 Champions League Twenty20.

2008 Champions League Twenty20
Administrator(s)BCCI, CA, CSA
Cricket formatTwenty20
Tournament format(s)Round-robin and knockout
Host(s) India
Participants8
Matches played15

Format

The tournament has eight teams and is divided into a group stage and a knockout stage. If a match ends in a tie, a Super Over will be played to determine the winner. The group stage has the teams divided into two equal groups, with each playing a round-robin tournament. The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage consists of two semi-finals, with the top team of one group facing the second from the other. The winners of the semi-finals play the grand final to determine the winner of the competition.[4]

Points awarded in the group stage:

ResultPoints
Win2 points
No result1 point
Loss0 points

Teams

Eight teams from five nations were invited for the tournament.

Qualified teams[5]
TeamCountryDomestic tournamentPositionGroup
Rajasthan Royals India2008 Indian Premier LeagueWinnerB
Chennai Super Kings India2008 Indian Premier LeagueRunner-upA
Titans South Africa2007–08 Standard Bank Pro20WinnerA
Dolphins South Africa2007–08 Standard Bank Pro20Runner-upB
Victorian Bushrangers Australia2007–08 KFC Twenty20 Big BashWinnerA
Western Warriors Australia2007–08 KFC Twenty20 Big BashRunner-upB
Middlesex Crusaders England2008 Twenty20 CupWinnerA
Sialkot Stallions Pakistan2008–09 RBS Twenty-20 CupWinnerB

England's participation

The organisers of the tournament confirmed that any team competing would be banned from fielding players who have competed in the Indian Cricket League, a rival to the Indian Premier League.[6] As a result of this, England's participation in the tournament was put in jeopardy. For the 2008 season, 15 of the 18 counties fielded 25 players from the ICL.[7] On 24 July 2008, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi confirmed their stance by stating that only Middlesex and Essex stood a chance of being invited to the Champions League because they didn't have ICL links.[8]

Venues

Three venues were chosen to host the league and knockout matches. Mumbai and Bangalore were chosen instead of Rajasthan Royals' home stadium which was under renovations. Chennai Super Kings' Chepauk Stadium was chosen to play two of the three matches the team had to play. The first semi-final was supposed to be held at Bangalore while the second semi-final and the final was to be held at Chennai.

Chennai Bangalore Mumbai
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium
Capacity: 50,000		 M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
Capacity: 45,000		 Brabourne Stadium
Capacity: 30,000

Fixtures

Group stage
Group A
Group B

Knockout stage
8 December (D/N)
Scorecard
Group B winner
v
Group A runner-up
9 December (D/N)
Scorecard
Group A winner
v
Group B runner-up
10 December (D/N)
Scorecard
Semi-final 1 winner
v
Semi-final 2 winner

Aftermath

The teams participating especially the IPL teams were extremely disheartened with the cancelling of league. Both the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals received $1.3 million as compensation whereas the other teams were also offered petty amounts.

References
  1. "Champions League will start on December 3". CricInfo. ESPN. 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  2. Brett, Oliver; Austin, Simon (2008-11-27). "Champions League cricket on hold". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  3. "Champions League pushed back to October 2009". CricInfo. ESPN. 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  4. "Everything you wanted to know about the Champions League". CricInfo. ESPN. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  5. "Cricket Champions League unveiled". BBC Sport. 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  6. "Champions League bans ICL players". BBC Sport. 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  7. Shankar, Ajay (2008-07-03). "Top officials meet for 'basic discussions'". CricInfo. ESPN. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  8. "Modi reiterates stand against teams with ICL links". CricInfo. ESPN. 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2012-05-14. Subham rout the first player to score 910runs from Odisha warriors
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