Introducing... the Twenty20 Champions League

The Twenty20 Champions League is an international Twenty20 cricket competition between clubs from Australia, England, India, Pakistan and South Africa. The Twenty20 Champions League is chaired by Lalit Modi, who is the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and Vice-President of the BCCI. The competition was launched in 2008 as a response to the success of national Twenty20 domestic cricket leagues, most notably the Indian Premier League. The first edition was set to take place from late September to early October 2008 in India, after the tournament organisers resolved various teething problems that had put the inaugural tournament under some doubt, but it was later announced that the tournament would be held from December 3 to December 10, 2008. The tournament was postponed again following terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 and later cancelled, with the first tournament now scheduled for October 2009.

Background:
An international tournament for domestic cricket teams is believed to have been first mooted by Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1996, Lalit Modi is also the chairman and commissioner on the IPL. The launch and subsequent success of Twenty20 cricket some years later was the influence behind a serious effort to get such a tournament off the ground. Twenty20 cricket was launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. Its launch was a result of a long-term decline in the popularity of county championship and domestic limited-overs cricket. By reducing the number of overs per innings to twenty and by placing a three hour limit on matches, the format was designed to attract a younger crowd and to boost attendances. Twenty20 proved a success, with an international version launched in 2005 and a World Twenty20 Competition held in September 2007. This proved much more popular than the 50 over Cricket World Cup had been just five months previously. The following year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched, proving that there could be a market for a big-spending domestic Twenty20 cricket league. The success of Twenty20 and the IPL lead many commentators to suggest that other forms of cricket would suffer, with some worrying about the effect of the popular fast-paced 'slogging' game on players' abilities in Test cricket.

Immediately after the end of the first series of the IPL, the cricket authorities in England, India, Australia and South Africa entered into discussions to create a new international club competition, to capitalize on the this success. The new tournament's £2.5m winning prize was described as "unprecedented" in cricket. A number of different formats for the tournament were considered, with original proposals containing a much lower prize fund. The T20 Champions League's creation was announced on 7 June 2008, along with the announcement of planned restructuring of some of the domestic cricket tournaments involved, including the introduction of franchising in South Africa, England and Australia. Pakistan's participation was always mooted, but not confirmed when the tournament was first launched. Following a series of discussions and the announcement of the creation of a Pakistan Super League from 2009, it was confirmed that two Pakistani teams would compete.

Qualifying:
Although the 2008 tournament was originally rumoured to only include teams from Australia, South Africa, India and England, it was announced on 4 July 2008, that two teams from Pakistan's domestic tournament were also invited. At the same, time England's participation was also put into doubt, following differences between the ECB & BCCI over the inclusion of rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) players. Eventually, it was arranged so that the 2008 Twenty20 Champions League would have consisted of 8 teams from 5 countries. The qualifiers are:

The winners and runners-up of the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia (Victoria Bushrangers and Western Warriors).

The winners and runners-up of the Standard Bank Pro 20 Series in South Africa and Zimbabwe (Pretoria Titans and Natal Dolphins)

The winners of the Twenty20 Cup in England and Wales (Middlesex Crusaders). (Note: Runners-up Kent were not invited to participate in the inaugural tournament because it contained two players who have taken part in the rebel Indian Cricket League, a competition that is not recognized by the BCCI).

The winners and runners-up of the Indian Premier League in India (Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings).

The winners of the RBS Twenty-20 Cup from Pakistan, (Sialkot Stallions in 2007-08).

This format is expected to change to include 12 teams for the 2009 edition.

The Tournament:
The 2008 Twenty20 Champions League was to have been played over an eight day period, consisting of two divisions competing in a round-robin format. This was to have been followed by an elimination round of four teams, the top two of each division, and then the final. If team numbers change for 2009, the format is likely to alter.

Links to more information on the Twenty20 Champions League:

Everything you wanted to know about the Champions League -by Cricinfo.com

Championsleaguetwenty20.com



*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

Player Profile(#39)...Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan)

Sohail Tanvir (born December 12, 1984 in Rawalpindi, Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer. He created a name for himself in his early years as a street cricketer of Rawalpindi, and was known as "Sohail Kukree".[citation needed]

Domestic career:
IPL career:
On March 11, 2008, Tanvir was signed up in the second round of the Indian Premier League's players' auction by the Jaipur franchise, Rajasthan Royals, for $100,000.

Playing in his third match of tournament, on May 4, Tanvir took a match-winning six wickets against the Chennai Super Kings at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. His figures of 4-0-14-6 are a record for Twenty20 cricket. He ended the tournament as the highest wicket-taker, with 22 wickets from 11 matches at an average of 12.09, an economy rate of 6.46 and a strike rate of 11.20, the best among bowlers with more than six wickets.

In the final of tournament, on June 1 at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai, with Rajasthan chasing 164 to win, Tanvir added 21 runs along with captain Shane Warne. He hit the winning runs of the final ball of the innings, to see the Royals home. He was later presented with the "Purple Cap", an award for the leading wicket-taker of the tournament.

A statistical analysis conducted by Cricinfo after the conclusion of the league stage of the tournament rated Tanvir as the most successful player. He was also rated as the second best value player of the tournament, having been signed on for $100,000.

International career:
An allrounder, he is a hard-hitting left-handed batsman and left-arm fast-medium bowler who also bowls occasional left-arm orthodox spin. Despite not having taken a single wicket during his ten Twenty20 matches domestically, he was selected for Pakistan's squad for the inaugral World Twenty20 after Shoaib Akhtar was sent home. He made his Twenty20 debut in the tournament, and took six wickets in six matches, with best bowling figures of 3 for 31 in four overs against Australia. Though considered an allrounder, Tanvir did not get a chance to bat in the tournament until the final, where he made his first international runs, with a six off his first ball, aiding Pakistan back into the game.

After impressing in the ICC World Twenty20, he was selected to play in the ODI series against South Africa in October, 2007. He was then selected for the tour of India, and took eight wickets in the ODI series. He also took part in the Test series that followed, making his debut in place of the injured Umar Gul. On debut at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Dehli, he took three wickets which included Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. In Asia Cricket Cup, June 2008, Pakistan played their first game against Hong Kong at Karachi. In that match, Pakistan's top order was badly ripped by Hong Kong bowlers before Sohail Tanvir set up a 100 run stand along with Fawad Alam for the 8th wicket. Sohail scored his maiden ODI 50 in that match. He scored 59 off just 55 balls which took Pakistan to a respectable score of 288. After that, in the match vs. Sri Lanka, Tanvir took his first 5 wickets haul. He ended at 5/48 in 10 overs.

Links to more information on Sohail Tanvir:

Cricinfo.com Profile on Sohail Tanvir

CricketArchive Profile on Sohail Tanvir





*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

Introducing...the Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League (also known as the "DLF Indian Premier League" and often abbreviated as IPL), is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and chaired by the Chairman & Commisoner IPL, BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008, and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

Teams play each other two times in a round robin system, with equal number of home and away matches. The top four ranking sides will progress to the semi-finals.

The inaugural 2008 tournament started on 18 April 2008 in Bangalore and lasted for 46 days, with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain

Television rights and sponsorship:
The IPL will bring the BCCI income of US$1 billion, over a period of five to ten years, reinforcing its status as the richest board in world cricket.

All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%.

Television rights:
On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has a duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.

20% of these proceeds would go to IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would be distributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed in these proportions until 2012, after which the IPL would go public and list its shares. Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies.

Rules:
The official rules for the tournament are here. Some of the Team composition rules are:

Total squad strength of 16 players plus one physio and a coach.

No more than 8 foreign players in the squad and at most 4 in the playing XI.

A minimum of 4 local players must be included in each team.

No fewer than 4 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team.

The players accorded "icon" status are: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag . The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams.

Franchises:
The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008. While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.

Mumbai Indians
Owned by: Reliance Industries Limited (Mukesh Ambani)($111.9 million)

Royal Challengers Bangalore
Owned by: UB group (Vijay Mallya)($111.6 million)

Hyderabad Deccan Chargers
Owned by: Deccan Chronicle (T Venkatarami Reddy)($107 million)

Chennai Super Kings
Owned by: India Cements (N Srinivasan)($91 million)

Delhi Daredevils
Owned by: GMR Holdings (Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao)($84 million)

Kings XI Punjab
Owned by: Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur)($76 million)

Kolkata Knight Riders
Owned by: Red Chillies Entertainment (Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta)($75.09 million)

Rajasthan Royals
Owned by: Emerging Media (A.R Jha, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram)($67 million)

Future Expansion:
After the success of the first season, it has been reported that four new franchises will join the IPL in 2010-11, increasing the total number of teams to 12. The new confirmed franchises will be based in Ahmedabad and Kanpur, with Anil Ambani's name associated with the ownership of the Ahmedabad franchise, and Sahara Group is touted as the possible suitors to buy the Kanpur franchise. Other cities being linked with getting a franchisee are Patna-Ranchi joined franchisee or a team from the North-East to promote the sport in the region and possibly one team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand. A second Mumbai or Delhi team has also been proposed for future expansion of two teams to take place in the 2012-13 season.


Expansions- 2010-11 Season( 4 new teams)-

IPL Ahmedabad

IPL Kanpur

Any two from the following-

1. A Patna-Ranchi joined franchisee 2. A team from the North-East 3. A team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand

The unselected team from the 3 will be considered for the next set of expansions in the 2012-13 season.

2012-13 Season( 2 new teams)-

The unselected 3rd team from above

Possibly a second franchisee from Delhi's suburbs( Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, NOIDA and Greater NOIDA) and New Delhi combined

Possibly a second franchisee from Mumbai or a new franchisee from Pune.

Cheerleaders:
The IPL has been criticised by a few politicians and feminists for bringing in foreign cheerleaders, which is seen by many to not be in the traditional spirit of the game, as well as being against some Indian sensibilities. Two cheerleaders from London were asked to leave the ground at Mohali “because of the colour of their skin” by Wizcraft International Entertainment, which handles the team Kings XI Punjab. Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, both from London and of African ancestry were allegedly barred from entering the stadium by employees of Wizcraft International Entertainment on the pretext that "people don’t like dark girls here". Both the girls also allege that an employee referred to them with the racial slur ″nigger″.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said a probe would be initiated by the IPL only if the two women officially complain to IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

BCCI and IPL officials are surprised that the two cheerleaders did not complain about the alleged racist behaviour while they were in India and spoke about it only after they returned to London.

"We have not received any complaint from any cheerleaders that they were asked to leave by the Mohali-based Kings XI Punjab franchise recently because of the colour of their skin," BCCI joint secretary M.P. Pandove said in Mohali.

See also:

England - Twenty20 Cup

India - Indian Cricket League

Pakistan - Pakistan Super League

South Africa - Standard Bank Pro 20 Series

Sri Lanka - Inter-Provincial Twenty20

Australia - KFC Twenty20 Big Bash

New Zealand - State Twenty20

West Indies - Stanford 20/20

Zimbabwe - Metropolitan Bank Twenty20

Kenya - National Elite League Twenty20

Canada - Scotiabank National T20 Championship

Indian Premier League links:

Official site for Indian Premier League

Indian Premier League at Cricinfo

*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.

Player Profile(#20)...Shane Warne(Australia)

Shane Keith Warne (born 13 September 1969) is a former Australian international cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the finest leg spin bowlers in the history of cricket. While his career statistics suggest that, despite his aggregate performances, phenomenal popularity and notoriety, he was perhaps less effective and destructive than the interbellum Australian leg-spinners Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, his durability and impact on the modern game assure his place alongside them in cricket's pantheon. Indeed, in 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only bowler selected in the quintet.

Warne played his first Test match in 1992, and his 708 wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan on December 3, 2007. He took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals)—he was the second bowler to reach this milestone after Muttiah Muralitharan. A useful lower-order batsman, Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs, and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. His career was plagued by scandals off the field; these included a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, and charges of bringing the game into disrepute.

As well as Australia, he also played Australian domestic cricket for his home state of Victoria, and English domestic cricket for Hampshire. He was captain of Hampshire for three seasons, from 2005 to 2007. In March 2008, Warne signed to play in the Indian Premier League for the Jaipur team, Rajasthan Royals in the first edition of the tournament, where he will play the roles of both captain and coach.

He retired from international cricket in January 2007, at the end of Australia's 5-0 Ashes series victory over England. Two other players integral to the Australian team of recent years, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer, also retired from Tests on the same day which led some, including the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, to declare it the "end of an era".

Following his retirement from international cricket, Warne played a full season at Hampshire in 2007. He had been scheduled to appear in the 2008 English cricket season, but in late March 2008 he announced his retirement from playing first-class cricket in order to be able to spend more time pursuing interests outside of cricket.

Cricket-Online player profile - Shane Warne

Player Profile: Shane Warne from Cricinfo

Cricket Australia media release congratulating Warne on 500th wicket

10 photos of milestone wickets in Warne's career

VB Warnie - Summer of Spin

Ball of the Century

List of cricket incidents

List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

Statsguru - Shane K Warne - Test Bowling - List of wickets





*Acknowledgements to owners of pictures used, Wikipedia.org, Cricinfo.com