Thetournament had already fallen out of favour with the authorities as had been reported in this paper backin May and the suspensions of Chennai and Rajasthan two teams who would haveparticipated by virtue of making it to the IPL knockouts might have hastenedits demise. The Governing Council of the ChampionsLeague Twenty20 (CLT20) has today confirmed that the CLT20 competition will bediscontinued with immediate effect. The Governing Council of the CLT20comprising representatives of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA) made the decisionunanimously a media release said. As such the 2015 CLT20 scheduled forSeptember and October will not go ahead as planned said the release. The competition was launched in 2009 bythe BCCI with CA and CSA.
The Governing Council determined that thediscontinuation of the league was the most appropriate decision due to thetournaments limited public following. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said Thishas been a difficult decision as the Champions League T20 provided addedcontext to a number of domestic Twenty 20 competitions around the world such asthe IPL in India Big Bash League in Australia and South Africas Ram Slam T20.It was a fantastic platform for players from around the world to showcasetheir talent and the participating teams thoroughly enjoyed the experience overthe last six seasons. Unfortunately off the field ChampionsLeague T20 wasnt sustaining the interest of the fans as we had hoped. Thisdecision was made after consultation with all our commercial partners andmeeting the contractual obligations of all parties involved. The Governing Council would like tothank everyone involved with the CLT20 and all those who participated in thetournament. Further details associated with winding down the league includingsettling with the three nations that had invested time and effort in thecompetition will be completed very soon.
The decision to scrap CLT20 will alsoeffectively mean that the BCCI and other stakeholders will find it difficult toorganise a miniIPL which was being planned to fill the only vacant slotavailable in September. In all likelihood the plans for a replacementtournament would be shelved for now. Reigning IPL champions Mumbai Indiansand Royal Challengers Bangalore were the other two teams who would haveparticipated in the tournament. Yesterday the Mahendra Singh Dhoniled CSKand Rajasthan Royals were suspended for two years from the IPL by a SupremeCourtappointed committee. Shocked by the order the owners of CSK whose topplayers include top India players Dhoni Suresh Raina Ravichandran Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja held discussions with their lawyers and have planned to movethe apex court against the panels decision. Similarly the Rahul Dravidmentored RRwhose players include standin India captain Ajinkya Rahane and Stuart Binnywere also said to be planning moves to seek relief.
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