All set for champion stuff

Bengaluru

Oct. 7: A lot of water has flown under the bridge since the invention of the India Premier League. The Indian domestic league, with adequate foreign flavour, has not only changed the fortunes of the Twenty20 format but has also injected the entertainment quotient into the game of cricket.
It was at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy stadium that IPL kicked-off in a spectacular opening ceremony in 2008. Come Thursday, the stadium will witness another extravagant show as Champions League Twenty20 will take its first steps.
For sure, the buzz that surrounded the IPL is conspicuous by its absence but the format and the entire nature of the 16-day tournament, trust Lalit Modi for it, is such that it is set to lay the foundation for a long haul.
The tournament, which failed to take off last year due to the terror strikes in Mumbai, will witness three Indian and nine other teams, from seven countries battling out for the $2.5 million winner’s bounty on offer. Even though crowd-pullers like Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh will be missing as their IPL teams have failed to qualify for the event, the presence of top-class domestic teams from Australian and South Africa will add spice to the contest.
On Thursday, after a glitzy 35-minute opening ceremony scheduled at 6.45 pm, the tournament will kick-off with a match between IPL-2 runner-up Royal Challengers Bangalore and South African T20 champions Cape Cobras.
While both teams look equally balanced on paper, the Indian conditions and the slow pitches give a slight advantage to the Challengers.
Interestingly, the Anil Kumble-led side has four South African players — Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe — and it would be interesting to see how they fare against their country-mates.
The Cobras, who are missing skipper Graeme Smith, can be ignored at one’s own peril. With the explosive Herschelle Gibbs and reliable J.P. Duminy in their batting line-up along with five more players who have played international cricket, the team will not be short of experience.