Champions League Twenty20 or CL T20 is a Cricket tournament participated by all major domestic county cricket teams. This tournament was started by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA), and Cricket Australia (CA) following the footsteps of famous football event Champions league. Champions League T20 was started in 2009 and India is host of 5th Edition of this event. This event is participated by domestic T20 teams from India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Winners of the domestic tournaments organized in their country give ticket to play in Champions League T20.
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| Champions League T20 Cricket 2013 |
Ten teams out of twelve teams will play in main league out of which eight are fixed while other two teams will be from qualifiers. There will be no county team from England due to clash of their domestic season with this event. Champions league T20 is starting from the 17th September while the final will be played on the 6th October. In opening match current IPL 2013 Champion and Champions League 2011 winners Mumbai Indians will take on Rajasthan Royals.
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Previous Winners
This event was cancelled on its first edition of 2008 due to the Mumbai Terror strike so formally it started in 2009. Since then this tournament has seen four different winners in this event. All the four winners are from the Australia and India.
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| Sydney Sixers: Champions League T20 Winner 2012 |
Year
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Runner Up
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Winner
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2009
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Trinidad & Tobago
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New South Wells
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2010
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Warriors
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Chennai Super Kings
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2011
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Royal Challengers Bangalore
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Mumbai Indians
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2012
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Highveld Lions
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Sydney Sixers
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Participating Teams
There are twelve teams participating in this T20 cricket event. Out of these 12 teams four are from the IPL while two teams are from the South Africa, Australia and one each from the Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and Pakistan. This is first participation from the Pakistan domestic T20 team in this international event all due to the not so good relation between these two countries. There is no participation from the regular participating teams from the English county T20 team.
Group A
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Group B
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Mumbai Indians
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Chennai Super Kings
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Rajasthan Royals
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Titan
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Perth Scorchers
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Brisbane Heats
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Highveld Lions
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Trinidad & Tobago
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One from Qualifier
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One from Qualifier
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Qualifier Playing Teams : Sunrisers Hyderabad from India, Otago Volts from New Zealand, Kandurata Maroons from Sri Lanka and Faisalabad wolves from Pakistan are those teams who are going to play in Qualifiers to make their place in main league. Only two teams can qualify for the main league, so two these four have to return back from this tournament.
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| Faisalabad Wolves: Dark horse in CL T20 2013 |
PRIZE MONEY FOR CL T20
Huge amount of money is involved in this cricket tournament and that can be easily seen with the amount of money kept as the prize money. Every participating team make some money in this tournament.
Prize Money
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Position
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$ 2.5
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Winner
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$ 1.3
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Runner Up
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$ 500 000
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Semi-finalists
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$ 200 000
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Group Stage Losers
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FAVORITES TO WIN CL T20
Most of the major star players from domestic teams which also participate in IPL have decided to represent IPL teams instead of their country domestic teams. Kumar Sangakkara and Thishara Parerra are the some of the players who have decided to play for their domestic county teams. Absence of these stars have depreciated the chance of those domestic teams to win the champions league t20 trophy. So, these two teams are favorite to win this T20 championship in India.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
Three times IPL champion and 1 time Champions League t20 winning team CSK is favorite to win the 5th edition of CL T20 in India. Led by the charismatic captain MS Dhoni this team has very balanced squad. This team also consists a good mix up of talent from both India and abroad.
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| Chennai Super Kings Champions League T20 2010 Winner |
CSK batting looks very strong in the presence of Hussey, Raina, Dhoni and Vijay. Their bowling is well balanced and has both quality quick bowlers in Mohit, Morkel and spin bowlers in Ashwin and Jadeja. Presence of Bravo gives extra advantage in both bowling as well batting departments. All this makes Chennai Super Kings my favorite to win the trophy.
MUMBAI INDIANS
Current IPL champion and 2011 Champions League winner is also a strong contender for CL T20 trophy. Mumbai Indians played exceptional cricket and performed as a team under young skipper Rohit Sharma won IPL 2013. This team have a good blend of youth and experienced cricketers.
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| Mumbai Indians Champions League T20 2011 Winner |
Batting of Mumbai Indians is their strong part in the presence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Glen Maxwell, Kieron Pollard and Raidu along with wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Kartick. While in bowling they have Harbhaja, Ojha, Jhonson and Coultler-Nile, but absence of Malinga can be critical. Still, they have very well balanced team and they are the team to watch out in this tournament.
Apart from these two IPL teams, there are couple of county teams which can be a surprise package. Faisalabad Wolves, Highveld Lions and Perth Scorchers are dark horses in the race of Champions League T20 title. Faisalabad Wolves having players like Misbah Ul Haq and Saeed Ajmal is a team to watch as they are very familiar with the condition in India as it is very much same for them as back home.
What do you feel about Champions League T20? Which is your favorite team for Champions League T20 ? Drop your views and responses in the comment box.
