Five seasons of the Champions League Twenty20 have gone by and it still has people questioning its existence; one would have expected differently of a tournament which was based on one of football’s marquee events. It’s intriguing how the Indian Premier League has continued to attract fans to the stadiums in large numbers, despite the never-ending controversies, of which some of the matters are in the judicial court at the moment. The issues somehow never seem to affect the people’s interest in the tournament. The buzz, the excitement and colour is hard to miss for the audience and the organisers were hoping for the razzmatazz to spill over to the Champions League Twenty20. The concept that was aimed at ensuring that the public’s interest in franchise cricket is sustained all-year round, with the T20 sides from across the world meant to add a competitive edge, hasn’t exactly taken off.
This was expected to be a tournament which everyone would be looking forward to. But the sad truth is that it has not been able to catch the pulse of the audience. The CLT20 has failed to rope in an audience like the Indian Premier League, not even remotely, but Lalit Modi’s brainchild is pretty sound as a concept. And yet, surprisingly, it has failed to capture the imagination. A good indication of the appeal of the tournament is the lack of crowds at most venues. The qualifiers of the Champions League Twenty20 2014 were in Raipur, and the stands at the smaller centre were packed, but larger cities around the country barely see half the seats at the venue occupied, despite a considerable reduction in ticket prices. Even television audiences seem to be dwindling. In a bid to rekindle the interest of the fans, ticket prices have been slashed across all venues, but even so, it has failed to catch the imagination in this part of the country. Since 2009, the tournament has been scheduled five months after the IPL, which one would think is long enough to cure the T20 hangover. But year after year, the only constant has been the lukewarm response for the most part. As a result, you’re left wondering if slashing ticket prices is the only solution because Test cricket hasn’t been too popular either.
Despite the presence of three IPL teams and one in the qualifying rounds, there seems to be not much interest among fans. But of the four cities who will play host this season, only one – Mohali – has a team in the tournament. The other cities – Hyderabad, Bangalore and Raipur – are surrogates. Raipur will still draw in the big crowds, as was witnessed during the qualifiers, because the Chhattisgarh town hardly gets any cricketing action. But will there be a similar response in Hyderabad and Bangalore? Even in Mohali, with its own team in Kings XI Punjab, the enthusiasm has been lukewarm at best.
One of the major reasons why this tournament is not so popular is that most of the encounters are lopsided and IPL teams certainly seem to have the upper hand because most of the players who are contracted with other teams and are participating in this tournament tend to opt to play for their respective IPL teams for obvious reasons. One fine example is Kieron Pollard, who chose to represent Mumbai Indians over Barbados Tridents, the CPL champions; the irony is that Mumbai failed to qualify for the main tournament whereas the Barbados Tridents have already sealed their place in the competition.
One wonders what could be done to bring the fans back to the stadiums and to increase the popularity of the tournament. The organising committee might want to think along different lines to revive interest in the CLT20. United Arab Emirates was touted as a possible host this year, but when the schedule was announced, it wasn’t to be. However, UAE might have been the ideal host for a tournament of this kind. Even though fans in the UAE have been getting their share of cricket in recent times, from what was in evidence during the first leg of this year’s IPL, they would be happy to have even more. Already two editions of the CLT20 have been held in South Africa, and both in 2010 and 2012, it seemed reasonably popular. Other locations that could be considered are North America, which has seen a spurt in cricketing activity recently, and perhaps some untapped centers in Europe. Eventually, all these options must be considered and its viability also must be taken into account before any concrete decision is taken.
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