Reigning IPl champions Kolkata Knight Riders will play Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural match of this year’s Champions league Twenty20 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on September 17.
The sixth edition of the Twenty20 tournament will be held in four Indian cities — Hyderabad, Mohali, Bangalore and Raipur — from September 13 to October 4. According to statement from BCCI — the orgainsers of ClT20, the tournament will follow a format similar to the three previous editions, with a Group Stage preceded by a Qualifier. A total of 29 matches will be played in the competition.
The Qualifier will start from September 13 with the main tournament, comprising 10 teams, scheduled to begin on September 17 in Hyderabad.
Apart from KKR and CSK, Group A will comprise Dolphins (winners of South Africa’s domestic T20 competition), Perth Scorchers (Big Bash league winners), and a team from Qualifier.
Group B will feature Hobart Hurricanes (Big Bash league runners-up), the winner of the domestic T20 competition in the West Indies, Kings XI Punjab (runners-up in 2014 IPl), Cape Cobras (runners-up in South Africa’s domestic T20 competition), and a team from the Qualifier.
Each side will play the other four in its group once, with the top two sides from each group going through to the semi-finals. “The Group stage matches will be played at Mohali, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Raipur. The Qualifier will be played at Raipur. The ClT20 Governing Council has confirmed the teams that will compete for a total prize money of $6 million,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said.
The Qualifier, to be played from September 13 to 16, will feature four teams — Mumbai Indians (fourth-ranked team in IPl 2014), Northern Knights (winners of New Zealand’s domestic T20 competition), Southern Express (winners of Sri lanka’s domestic T20 tournament) and lahore lions (Pakistan’s domestic T20 competition champions).
In the Qualifier, all teams will play each other once, with the top two advancing to the Group Stage. The top team from Group A will play the second-ranked team from Group B, and vice versa, in the semi-finals, both of which will be played at Hyderabad on October 2. Bangalore will host the final on October 4.
Windies tour itinerary on Saturday
Mumbai: The BCCI is expected to announce the full itinerary of a scheduled tour by West Indies later this year on July 26. “The Board’s Tour Programme and Fixture Committee is to meet in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise the West Indies tour programme,” BCCI sources said on Thursday.
The Committee is headed by Rajeev Shukla with G S Walia (North Zone), P Yadagiri (South), Sathya Mohanty (East), Nitin Dalal (West) and Mahendra Sharma (Central) as its other members and BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel as its convenor.
West Indies are scheduled to play a three-Test and best-of-five ODI rubber between October 4 and November 18 after the completion of the Champions league T20 tournament which is scheduled to be held from September 14 and October 4, also in India.
West Indies visited India last year too in a hastily arranged two-Test series as a farewell to Sachin Tendulkar who retired after playing his 200th Test against the Caribbean team at his home ground, Wankhede Stadium, here in November.
The upcoming Windies visit is as per the previous Future Tours Programme of the ICC. Next year the new FTP, agreed upon by all full members of ICC at Melbourne last month, will kick in.
In 2015-16, it would be the turn of South Africa to visit India to play three Tests and ODIs to be followed by England who would split their tour into two halves — playing five Tests before the Christmas break and then ODIs on their return in the early part of 2016.