 The
second edition of the Champions league T20 will be played in South Africa
under a new format. There will be two groups in which the ten teams will be divided,
and each of the groups will see the five sides play out a round-robin. Every side
will play four games each and based on that, the top two teams from each group
will go through to the semi-finals of the tournament. Each group will see 10 games
played, and if one includes the semi-finals and the finals, there will be 23 games
in all.
This is totally different from what one had seen in the previous edition in
which there were four groups of three sides each and two teams from every group
made it through to the Super Eights, from where the two semi-finalists and then
the finalists were selected. The number of games continue to remain at 23 which
was also the number that was present last year. There are four venues in the
tournament, and each of them will host at least five games.
The first game of the tournament will see the Mumbai Indians play the
Lions on the September 10th at Wanderers in Johannesburg. The Wanderers, which
was amidst some controversy in the previous edition of the IPL, will also be
the venue for the final on September 26.
The two groups are as follows:
Group A: Chennai Super Kings, Victoria, Warriors, Wayamba, Central Districts
Group B: Mumbai Indians, Lions South Australia, Royal Challengers Bangalore
and a team from the West Indies that will be determined in late July.
New South Wales had won the inaugural tournament in 2009 but failed to make
it through to the tournament this time.
Given the nature of the competition and the fact that players can play for
different clubs, there are many who have been a part of more than one club which
has qualified for the tournament. Jacques Kallis (Warriors, Bangalore), Mark Boucher (Warriors, Bangalore), Makhaya Ntini (Warriors, Chennai ), Kieron
Pollard (South Australia, Mumbai), Dwayne Bravo (Victoria, Mumbai) and Cameron
White (Victorian, Bangalore) can all play for two clubs, whereas New Zealand's
Ross Taylor has qualified for three teams, Central Districts, Victoria
and Bangalore.
If the player decides to play for a side which is not a home side - i.e. the
club belonging to his home country - then, the away side will need to pay the
home side $200,000. It remains to be seen whether any of the away teams exercise
this option.
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