2010 Champions League Twenty20

Sahara Stadium Kingsmead

Capacity: 25,000

Matches: 6

The 2010 Champions League Twenty20 will be the second edition of the Champions League Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament. The tournament, which will be held from 10 to 26 September 2010 in South Africa, will feature 10 domestic Twenty20 sides from India, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, the West Indies and South Africa.[1][2]

Host selection:

In February 2010, Cricket South Africa announced that South Africa was chosen as the host of the tournament. This was later denied by tournament chairman Lalit Modi, who listed South Africa, Australia, England, India and the Middle East all as possible contenders for hosting the tournament.[3] On April 25, 2010, at the conclusion of the 2010 Indian Premier League, it was announced that South Africa was officially chosen as the host of the tournament. South Africa had previously hosted other major Twenty20 tournaments, including the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2009 Indian Premier League.[4]

Format:

The tournament consisted of the ten top domestic teams from six countries as determined by the domestic Twenty20 tournaments of those countries. The tournament consists of 23 matches, 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.

SARJHA
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 advances to the 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.[5]

                         



Points awarded in group and league stages:

Result                 Points


Win                   2 points

No result           1 point

Loss                   0 points

Prize money:

Same as the previous tournament, the total prize money for the competition is US$6 million. In addition to the prize money, each team receives a participation fee of $500,000.[6] The prize money will be distributed as follows:

@$200,000 – Each team eliminated in the group stage


@$500,000 – Each semi-finalist

@$1.3 million – Runners-up

@$2.5 million – Winners

Teams:

This tournament has two fewer teams compared to the previous tournament due to the absence of English county teams because the tournament dates clash with the end of England's domestic season.[7] The format of the tournament was modified to accommodate this.




Apart from England, Pakistan is the only other top-eight Test-playing nation not to be represented in the tournament. In February 2010, Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, had reportedly refused participation in the tournament due to the snubbing of Pakistani cricketers in the 2010 Indian Premier League player auction. The auction resulted in none of them being bought for the league.[8] Butt later stated his comments were misunderstood, but the Champions League administrators had already decided to leave out Pakistan due to Butt's statements. Champions League officials have made contradicting statements as to whether a Pakistan team would have been considered regardless of Butt's statement. Pakistan was also absent from the previous tournament due to the deterioration of relations between host nation India and Pakistan.[9]



The tournament will only feature three teams from the previous tournament. Other teams failed to qualify, including the previous tournament's champions, the New South Wales Blues of Australia.[2] The following teams have qualified for the competition:

Team                                          Country          Domestic tournament                Position Appearance Group


Chennai Super Kings                  India              2010 Indian Premier League         Winner 1st A


Mumbai Indians                         India               2010 Indian Premier League         Runner-up 1st B

Royal Challengers Bangalore     India               2010 Indian Premier League         Third place 2nd B

Warriors                                  South Africa      2010 Standard Bank Pro20         Winner 1st A


Highveld Lions                       South Africa        2010 Standard Bank Pro20         Runner-up 1st B

Victorian Bushrangers[10]      Australia             2009–10 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash Winner 2nd A


Southern Redbacks[11]        Australia             2009–10 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash     Runner-up 1st B

Central Districts Stags         New Zealand         2010 HRV Cup                            Winner 1st A


Wayamba Elevens              Sri Lanka               2010 Inter-Provincial Twenty20     Winner 2nd A


Guyana                               Guyana                  2010 Caribbean Twenty20            Winner 1st B


Squads:
 
Several teams are missing star players that helped them qualify for the tournament, mostly due to their commitment to another qualified team or to their national team.[12] In the case of a player being a part of more than one qualified team, he can play for his "home" team (the team from the country he is eligible to represent in international cricket) without consequence. If he plays for any other team, that team must pay the home team US$200,000 as compensation.[5] The Royal Challengers Bangalore were the only team to pay the compensation, forcing three international players to play for them instead of their home team.[13] Jacques Kallis, Cameron White and Ross Taylor were obligated to play for Bangalore as their contracts stated Bangalore had first rights over them should they qualify for the tournament with another team.[14