More about Twenty20 Champions League

The Twenty20 Champions League is an international Twenty20 cricket competition between clubs from Australia, England, India, Pakistan

and South Africa. The Twenty20 Champions League is Chaired by one of the world's most powerful cricket administrators in Lalit Modi. Modi

is also the Chairman and Commisioner of the Indian Premier League, Vice-President of the BCCI, President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, and

the Vice-President of the Punjab Cricket Association. The competition is being launched in 2008 as a response to the success of national Twenty20

domestic cricket leagues, most notably the Indian Premier League. The first edition was set to take place in late September to early October 2008 in

India, after the tournament organisers resolved various teething problems that had put the inagaural tournament under some doubt, but it was later

announced that the tournament would be held in December.

Background of Twenty20 Champions League:
An international tournament for domestic cricket teams is believed to have been first mooted by Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Board of Control for

Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1996, lalit modi is also the chairman and commisoner on the IPL, president of the Rajasthan Cricket Assocation and

vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Assocation. The launch and subsequent success of Twenty20 cricket some years later was the influence behind

a serious effort to get such a tournament off the ground. Twenty20 cricket was launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. Its

launch was a result of a long-term decline in the popularity of county championship and domestic limited-overs cricket. By reducing the number of

overs per innings to twenty and by placing a three hour limit on matches, the format was designed to attract a younger crowd and to boost

attendances. Twenty20 proved a success, with an international version launched in 2005 and a World Twenty20 Competition held in September

2007. This proved much more popular than the 50 over Cricket World Cup had been just five months previously.The following year, the Indian Premier

League (IPL) was launched, proving that there could be a market for a big-spending domestic Twenty20 cricket league. The success of Twenty20

and the IPL lead many commentators to suggest that other forms of cricket would suffer, with some worrying about the effect of the popular

fast-paced 'slogging' game on players' abilities in Test cricket.

Immediately after the end of the first series of the IPL, the cricket authorities in England, India, Australia and South Africa entered into discussions

to create a new international club competition, to capitalize on the this success. The new tournament's £2.5m winning prize was described as

"unprecedented" in cricket. A number of different formats for the tournament were considered, with original proposals containing a much lower prize

fund. The T20 Champions League's creation was announced on 7 June 2008, along with the announcement of planned restructuring of some

of the domestic cricket tournaments invovled, including the introduction of franchising in South Africa, England and Australia. Pakistan's participation

was always mooted, but not confirmed when the tournament was first launched. Following a series of discussions and the announcement of the

creation of a Pakistan Super League from 2009, it was confirmed that two Pakistani teams would compete.