Suneer Chowdhary
( Cricket Writer)
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The idea is an interesting one, and there can hardly be a doubt about it. However, it is the implementation of the Champions League – of Cricket – that may just be a bit of an issue. And with one Mr. Lalit Modi on a roll, one wouldn’t be too surprised if he bypassed all the potential and unforeseen issues and made the concept work.

First things first though. For the uninitiated, this Champions League is based on the league that goes by the same name in football, where the creame de la creame of football clubs from each country, compete with others for the honor of being crowned the best club in the continent of Europe. This Lalit Modi-master piece would work on similar lines. Two sides from each country – or at least each of the four ear-marked yet – would get together in an eight team tournament, and the winner would be termed the best cricket ‘club’ of the world. To add to this basic piece of information, there are four countries that have deemed to represent their top two T20 sides in this first-of-its-kind tournament. Six of the eight teams have been decided already; the two finalists at the IPL, Western Australia and Victoria from Down Under and the Titans and KwaZulu Natal from South Africa have booked their place, where two more teams would join them from England by 26th July this year. Attractive enough right, then where does the problem lie?

For starters, there is a small problem with the structure of the format. What happens to those players who have represented more than one side this year; a player X from Australia could have represented the Australian first class side – which also qualified for the Champions League – and then have also features in the IPL finals. Who has the first right on the player, his home side or the team owner that pays him more? While Lalit Modi and the rest grapple with this problem, I have no hesitation in sticking my neck out and predicting that this one is a no-brainer. It is only obvious that money would have the last word on this, and the players would have no hesitation whatsoever, in keeping their monetary issues in the forefront if given a choice. Which may not be wrong from a players’ perspective, yet, does not sound too ethical either, if one could call it that.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is a problem with the dates. The only visible window for such a tournament to materialize is between the end of the Champions Trophy on 28th September and the beginning of the Australian tour of India, the first Test starting on the 9th of October. Essentially that would mean that some of the cricketers from both, the Aussie and the Indian Test sides, like Dhoni and Hussey, may be playing a T20 tournament till about a couple of days before the Test begins. This is hardly the way to go about preparing for Tests, and clearly, again, it would be a case of misplaced priorities. While James Sutherland is making all the right noises about putting international cricket ahead of ‘underwear cricket’, I would not be too surprised if the whole issue gets swept under the carpet and the players – the ‘professionals’ that they are – do end up playing two vastly different forms of the game, within a couple of days of each other.

Yes, it would be worth a watch, both the Champions League, and the build up to it as the Lalit and co. look to find solutions to the problems mentioned above!