Thaindian News

Bangalore, June 29 (IANS) The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20), the grand finale of Twenty20 cricket among the world’s champion teams, will start Sep 10 with a Group B clash between Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians and Alviro Petersen’s Highveld Lions at Wanderers in Johannesburg.
Wanderers Stadium, one of world cricket’s most famous venues, will host the final.

All matches throughout the tournament will be broadcast at prime time in India starting at 5 p.m. or 9 p.m. IST, a release from host broadcasters ESPN said Tuesday.

The 10 competing teams have been divided into two groups of five for a round-robin phase before the top two teams from each group progress to the semi-finals.

Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore will fight it out in Group B along with South Australia’s Redbacks and West Indies’ representative which will be determined in late-July.

The 2010 Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Chennai Super Kings have been drawn in Group A alongside the Twenty20 champions from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Matches throughout the tournament have been evenly distributed across the four venues with each hosting at least five fixtures, including the finals.

Wanderers Stadium, which has hosted some of cricket biggest matches including the 2003 World Cup final, 2007 World Twenty20 final and the 2009 IPL final, will add another chapter to its storied history in September as teams from around the world battle to be crowned the best of the best.

Durban and Centurion have been awarded the semifinals Sep 24 and 25 with the final to be played at the Wanderers Sep 26.

Play in Group A begins Sep 11 in Port Elizabeth with virtual international-strength clashes between the Warriors and Wayamba followed by Chennai Super Kings vs Central Stags game in Durban.

Centurion gets its first taste of CLT20 action the following day with a blockbuster Group B double-header between the Highveld Lions and South Australia, and Royal Challengers Bangalore and the qualified team from the West Indies.

Shashank Manohar, Airtel CLT20 Chairman, and also the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said: “With 100 international stars qualified to participate through one or more of their Twenty20 teams, fans will be treated to daily battle between the world’s best cricketers.”

A number of players have qualified to play for two or more teams, including Jacques Kallis (Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore), Mark Boucher (Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore), Makhaya Ntini (Warriors and Chennai Super Kings), Kieron Pollard (South Australian Redbacks and Mumbai Indian), Dwayne Bravo (Victorian Bushrangers and Mumbai Indian) and Cameron White (Victorian Bushrangers and Royal Challengers Bangalore).

New Zealand’s Ross Taylor has become the first player in CLT20’s short history to qualify for three teams - Central Stags, Victorian Bushrangers and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

If Trinidad and Tobago emerge as champions of the West Indies Cricket Board’s domestic Twenty20 competition, then Pollard and Bravo will also join Taylor with three options for the tournament.

As was the case in 2009, if a player is selected to play for an ‘away’ team rather than his ‘home’ team (the team from the country he is eligible to represent in international cricket), the ‘away’ team must pay USD 200,000 compensation to the ‘home’ team.

‘Away’ teams are not eligible for compensation if a player chooses to play for his ‘home’ team.

The groupings:

Group A: Chennai Super Kings (2010 IPL Champions), Victoria (Australia), Warriors (South Africa), Wayamba Elevens (Sri Lanka) and Central Stags (New Zealand).

Group B: Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, South Australian Redbacks (Australia), Higveld Lions (South Africa) and West Indies champions.