Good day sports fans!!
Today sees the start of the 2nd edition of the Airtel Champions League Twenty 20. And unlike the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is monotonous, leborious and many other things, the Champions League is brilliant.
T20 is the newest of the formats of the age old game of cricket. The purists hate it... The MCC (Grandfather of cricket) hasn't as yet embraced it... But the fact remains that Cricket hasn't had the entertainment shift it needed since Kerry Packer's infamous World Series... The start of One Day Full Colour Cricket we love today. T20 cricket is vital if cricket is to survive the economic pressures that any sport faces these days. Fans love it, which means attendance levels grow, which means sponsors are happy... And that's what it's all about... Money... It's sad, but that's professional sport!
Similiar to soccer's Champions League, this tournament has the potential to have 10/12 new teams participating every year... And not the mind numbingly boring 8 same teams we see every year "compete" over 60 odd matches in the IPL. Only three teams from last year's tournament survived and will represent their nations again this year. No surprise then that 2 of them enter as favourites to contest the final scheduled for Sunday 26 September 2010. But more about that later.
The innaugural 2009 tournament was held in India and consisted of 12 teams. England, however, withdrew from this years tournament (Probably those MCC Blokes in their hideous ties again). The final was contested between the New South Wales Blues & Kieron Pollard... Sorry, I mean Trinidad & Tobago. NSW running out as champion in a one sided final. Neither team qualified for this years tournament... The 2010 version, hosted by South Africa, will comprise of 10 teams. They qualified as follows (Pool Allocation in Brackets):
The Indian Premier League : Chennai Super Kings (A), Mumbai Indians (B),
Royal Challengers Bangalore (B)
The Standard Bank Pro 20 from South Africa: Chevrolet Warriors (A),
BizHub Highveld Lions (B)
The KFC Big Bash from Australia : Victoria Bushrangers (A),
South Australia Redbacks (B)
Sri Lankan Domestic Champs : Wayamba Elevens (A)
West Indian Champs : Guyana (B)
New Zealand Champs : Central Stags (A)
I've decided I'm not going to run through each team, instead i'm gonna put my neck on the line and make some predictions as to how I think the tournament is going to pan out...
The tournament consits of the teams playing each opposing team in the same pool once. The top two in each pool compete in the semi finals, and the winners go on to contest the final.
Pool A:
All 5 teams won their respective regional titles... Pool A has three clear teams who will compete for the two semi final spots and two no hopers... The game between the Central Stags and the Wayamba Elevens will decide the wooden spoon as the loser of that game will end up with 4 losses out of 4 and the winning side with a 1 out of 4 record... That leaves the Chenai Super Kings, the Victoria Bushrangers and the Chevrolet Warriors. All 3 those teams being champions of their respective regions. Surely this should lead to tight competition, however... I don't really think so...The Super Kings is the interesting team in this pool. They won the IPL on flat Indian Wickets. Granted, they do have some big international superstars... Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Albie Morkel, Justin Kemp & Muttiah Muralitharan... Problem with that is that the IPL teams are only permitted 3 overseas players... The rest have to be local players... The best of which is captain MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina... Traditionally Indian Players have struggled on South African wickets, especially the bouncy spring wickets the highveld will surely have prepared. They are going to need massive efforts from their stars to do well in this years tournament.
The Victoria Bushrangers and the Chevrolet Warriors are thus in my mind the clear favourites. Both teams know the conditions, and are used to wickets with "life". The Super Kings will have to beat one of these sides to progress but I'm not sure it's going to happen...
Not to miss game: Victoria Bushranger vs Chevrolet Warriors on 13 September 2010 @ 17:30 cat. This game will decide who finishes top of Pool A.
Pool B:
Pool B is interesting and a lot more difficult to call. Only one regional winner in Guyana, but they will finish bottom of the Pool. The other 4 sides have the ability to win on any given day, and also to be totally mediocre as well... The pick of the bunch has to be the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Lots of South African influence... Jacques Kallis (Who could open the batting and bowling), Dale Steyn, Dillon du Preez and coach Ray Jennings. Add to that Cameron White & Ross Taylor and they have a very well balanced overseas contingent to chose from. Their Indian players have been brilliant. Captain Kumble was a revelation in the 2009 IPL staged in South Africa. Virat Kohli and Robin Uthappa are two very talented batsmen who are both playing superbly. And in Praveen & Vinay Kumar (Not related) they have two super seam bowlers who will come into their own as support to the Steyn Train. The Royal Challengers are going to be hard to stop.
That leaves three teams... The Indians, Redbacks and Lions. On paper, the Mumbai Indians (IPL Finalists) should be the the side going through to the semi finals along with their Indian counterparts. However, the Redbacks and Lions both have the ability to cause some major upsets. These two side are very interesting in that neither of them have real massive superstars in their line up... There are, however, a few notables amongst others Shaun Tait and Callum Ferguson for the Aussies and Alviro Peterson, Neil McKenzie and Vaughn van Jaarsveld for the South Africans. But both these teams' strength lies in the collective team effort they put into their games. Each player takes responsibility and nothing is left up to individual efforts. They both face an uphill task in dislodging the Mumbai Indians with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga & Harbhajan Singh but don't be surprised if it comes down to the match between the two relative "nobody's" for a spot in the semi final.
Not to miss game: bizHub Highveld Lions vs South Australia Redbacks on 12 September 2010 @ 13:30 cat. Two teams with "unknown" players taking eachother on in the biggest stage they've ever competed in. I've always been a "backing the underdog" kind of guy!
My prediction then for the semi finals:
24 September 2010
Victoria Bushrangers vs Highveld Lions
&
25 September 2010
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chevrolet Warriors
Grand Final:
26 September 2010
Victoria Bushrangers vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
And there we have 2 of the three teams that competed in last year's version of the Airtel Champions League.
Eventual Winner: Got to back the local flavour of Kallis and Co. My prediction then as the winners of the 2010 Airtel Champions League... Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Thanks for taking the time to read this... Hope you found it interresting... Please comment and give me your views... Would Love to hear what everyone else predicts...
On a personal note... Come on the Highveld Lions... Make Jo'Burg and SA proud...
BigDog!!
What's with Vaughn VJ? I know how good a player he is but I don't think I have ever seen him 'come good'. They needed him yesterday and he went for a lousy 8. Once the Redbacks got thru the top order there was not much class left. Vandiaar struggled against the pace of Tait.
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