Airtel Champions League Twenty20 2009

The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20), an international club Twenty20 cricket will be held in India between October 8 and 23, 1009. It is the first edition of the Twenty20 Champions League. The tournament is an international club Twenty20 cricket competition. The clubs from India, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies are the competitors in the tournament. BCCI vice-president and Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi is chaired the Twenty20 Champions Trophy. Bharati Airtel, Indian mobile service company is the title sponsor of the tournament. The winners will earn around six million dollar.

The first edition of the Champions Trophy was take place in 2009 December. But it was postponed following Mumbai attacks in November. The tournament was later cancelled and revised.

Twelve teams participated in the tournament. Three teams from India, two each teams from Australia, South Africa, England and one each team from New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The qualifying rounds are Indian Premier League (India), KFC Twenty20 Big Bash (Australia), Standard Bank Pro20 Series (South Africa), Twenty20 Cup (England and Wales), State Twenty20 (New Zealand), Stanford Twenty20 (West Indies) and Inter Provincial Twenty20 (Sri Lanka).

The teams are Deccan Chargers, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Delhi Daredevils (India), New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers (Australia), Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles (South Africa), Sussex, Somerset (England), Otago Volts (New Zealand), Wayamba (Sri Lanka), Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies).

The highlight of the tournament is will play the world class cricketers like Adam Gilchirst, Virender Sehwag, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo and Ajantha Mendis. The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore (Bangaluru) on October 8, 2009.

The matches will host Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The matches will be played at 4 pm and 8 pm IST. The teams will be divided into four groups of three each teams. The top two teams from each group will qualify the second stage. Four teams from the second stage will play semi finals. Twenty-three matches will be played over a 16 day period in the tournament.

Group A: Deccan Chargers, Somerset Sabres, Trinidad & Tobago
Group B: New South Wales Blues, Diamond Eagles, Sussex Sharks
Group C: Bangalore Royal Challengers, Cape Cobras, Otago Volts
Group D: Delhi Daredevils, Victoria Bushrangers, Wayamba

The second stage of the tournament is league stage. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the stage. The league structure is here:

League A: A1, A2, B1, B2
League B: C1, C2, D1, D2
The same group teams will not play in the league stage. (eg. A1 and A2 will not play in the league stage). The top two teams from each league will qualify for semi-finals. Winners from the semi-finals will play in the final.