Champions League Twenty20 tournament discontinued

NEW DELHI: The IPL tournament scheduled for September and October this year would be discontinued due to its limited public following, the governing council of the Champions League Twenty20 said today.

The Governing Council of the CLT20, comprising representatives of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA) unanimously reached the decision. BCCI had launched the tournament in 2009 in partnership with CA and CSA.

The Governing Council determined that the discontinuation of the league was the most appropriate decision due to the tournament’s limited public following.

“This has been a difficult decision as the Champions League T20 provided added context to a number of domestic Twenty 20 competitions around the world such as the IPL in India, Big Bash League in Australia and South Africa’s Ram Slam T20,” said Anurag Thakur, secretary of the BCCI.

“It was a fantastic platform for players from around the world to showcase their talent and the participating teams thoroughly enjoyed the experience over the last six seasons. Unfortunately, off the field, Champions League T20 wasn’t sustaining the interest of the fans as we had hoped,” he said.

Thakur said that the decision was made after consultation with all commercial partners and meeting the contractual obligations of all parties involved.