India will host this year’s Champions League tournament as the world’s best 20-over teams contest a share of $6million in prize money.
The event, won by Australian franchise Sydney Sixers last autumn, will feature a qualifier and group stage but, unlike the 2012 tournament in South Africa, will not include English counties like Hampshire and Yorkshire.
“The CLT20 will return to India this year,” said N Srinivasan, chairman of the competition’s governing council. “It will be the third time India will host the tournament in five years, following the events in 2009 and 2011.
“The competition, which will again feature leading cricketers from across the world and some of the established legends of world cricket, will be watched and followed by equally passionate fans.”
Matches, totalling 29 in all, will be played between 17th September and 6th October, with the top three teams from the current Indian Premier League joined by Big Bash League duo Brisbane Heat and Perth Scorchers, a couple of South African franchises in Nashua Titans and Highveld Lions and Caribbean champions Trinidad & Tobago.
A fourth IPL team will feature in the qualifying stage from which the top two teams will join the eight already handed group berths.
New Zealand champions Otago Volts and their counterparts from Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also be vying for a spot in the tournament proper.
Former winners of the competition Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians are amongst the favourites to finish in the top four of the current IPL and therefore secure a place.
South Africa are 4/1 to win the Champions Trophy later this year while England can be backed at 9/2, Australia at 5/1 and India at 5/1.
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