Champions League T20 (CLT20) was an inter-franchise annual T20 league which was co-owned by BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. Leading franchises from the T20 leagues like IPL, BBL used to play in the league. But all three boards decided to scrap CLT20 as the league had a poor viewership and lack of sponsors.
BCCI Planned Mini IPL
The league was started in 2008 and the last season was played in 2014. The window of the tournament was in September and October. After the tournament got abandoned in 2014, the window left vacant. However, after CLT20 was discontinued the Asia Cup is now played during the CLT20 window of Sep/Oct and ICC has also scheduled the T20 World Cup in 2020 (Australia) and 2021 (India) around the same time.
But now, BCCI has planned to get back their two-month window and stage a mini IPL. Hemang Amin, Indian Premier League’s chief officer informed about the concept, “Since the Sep/Oct was CLT20 window, BCCI should look at utilizing this as a 2nd IPL window so the existing teams can have a longer participation instead of the two months and this will also entail that BCCI creates a new revenue stream which will be beneficial for the teams, BCCI and extension of brand IPL,”
Champions League T20 was a disaster because foreign teams were also the part of it. It got a poor response from the fans outside India. But mini IPL can do a better.
Franchises had also requested BCCI to allow them to play friendly matches outside India. This idea was of most successful IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians. MI wants to connect the IPL viewers in the USA and Canada who get very few chances to interact with their favourite players or teams. IPL Governing Council allows franchises to explore the idea of overseas friendlies.