The Champions League T20 (CLT20) could soon be making a comeback but not quite in the way fans remember it. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has begun laying the groundwork for a revamped version of the tournament, reimagined as the World Club Championship featuring top franchises from around the world.
While the earlier editions of CLT20, held between 2009 and 2014, struggled to sustain itself commercially, the cricketing landscape has changed a lot in the last decade. Today, multiple franchise T20 leagues exist across continents, many of them with shared ownership structures.
Indian Premier League (IPL) teams now have sister sides in South Africa, the Caribbean, the UAE, and even the USA. This along with rising popularity of the T20 leagues has created a far more suitable environment for a global competition.
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Champions League T20 2.0: ECB Plotting Launch of World Club Championship
As the talks to reintroduce Champions League T20 have gained steam, at the forefront of these discussions is ECB chief executive Richard Gould, who confirmed the intent to bring such a global tournament back to life.
"That is on the cards. Without doubt, at some point, there will be a World Club Championship for both men and women. That’s the next logical step," Gould said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Adding further insight, Gould acknowledged the value of the original tournament. He recognised its shortcomings in a different era, adding that the tournament was ahead of its time.
"That tournament was ahead of its time. Commercially, it couldn't keep up with the expectations on it, but it was a really good event."
The original CLT20 had all the right ingredients. Top teams from India, Australia, England, South Africa, Pakistan and the West Indies took part in it. It had all the stars from Chris Gayle to MS Dhoni.
But the timing and structure did not quite work out. It arrived at a time when T20 cricket was still finding its feet, and scheduling the tournament outside of packed international windows proved difficult.
Notably, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) won the Champions League T20 title twice before the competition was discontinued because of the lack of commercial success.
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Arun Dhumal Leaves Possibility Open for Champions League T20 Relaunch
He acknowledged that the original Champions League T20 may have been launched prematurely and its relaunch could be considered if the product has in it to create value for cricket.
"It was done before the opportune time for that kind of event [the Champions Trophy T20] I would not say no to anything but everything depends on whether we have an availability of time … If it creates value for cricket at a global stage, definitely we can look at that," Dhumal was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo.
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