The fourth edition of Champions League T20 gets underway in South Africa. Unfortunately, Pakistan, one-time World T20 winner and semi-finalist in all the other editions of World T20 held so far, could not get representation in the previous three editions of Champions League. However this time around Sialkot Stallions, winner of domestic T20 from Pakistan, got the chance to make an impact in their maiden Champions League T20, where so-called Champion Teams of the cricketing world face each other to ‘crown’ the ‘Champion of the Champions’. But then again the irony is that Stallions were put in the qualifying round; some other Champion teams had to taste the same fate including those belonging to the finalists of recently held World T20 2012 tournament, namely Sri-Lanka and West Indies. On the other hand, it has been more of free riding for selected nations; India gets automatic entry for their 4 teams from IPL, both Australia and South Africa got representation with their two domestic teams. Though CLT20 is joint initiative of BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, yet the concerned authorities need to make it levelheaded; there should be instinctive solitary representation from 9 to 10 countries. If there is need to put more than one team from a country, there should be earning rather than granting, and the non-champion team(s) should prove their skills in the qualifying round.
AMIR IKRAM,
Lahore. October 10.