New South Wales have been crowned as the winner of the inaugural competition in India. Boosted by Brett Lee’s man of the match 48, the Blues set a score of 159. This was simply too high a score for Trinidad & Tobago, who were all out for 118 after 15.5 overs following sublime bowling performances from Lee (2-10) and Clark (3-21).
New South Wales will now split the $2.5 million US Dollars in prize money among their players and support staff, all of which played a pivotal role in securing victory for the 2009 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash champions.
Trinidad & Tobago’s Success in the Champions League
That being said, Trinidad & Tobago’s success in the tournament is not to be understated. The fact that the team management had booked return tickets to the Caribbean for the 19th of October shows just how much the team has performed above and beyond its expectations. Great tournaments from Kieron Pollard, William Perkins, Dwayne Bravo and Sherwin Ganga allowed the team to progress to the finals. Although the 41-run margin in the final may seem large, before Lee’s involvement in the Blues’ batting, the NSW team had slipped to 6-83.
What Happened to Pakistan?
Pakistan was excluded from the Champions League. While a team was to take part in the tournament, it was announced in May that it would not be taking part in the competition. Lalit Modi, chairman of the Champions League, stated that “the Pakistan government won't give them [the team] clearance to come to India”, despite the fact that PCB official argued that the board had not been contacted at all over the exclusion.
Another notable exclusion from the tournament was the Westerns, winners of the 2009 Metropolitan Bank Twenty20 competition in Zimbabwe. It is understood that they were not offered a place in the competition.
It will be interesting to see if Abahani Limited, the winners of the Bangladeshi Big Boss T20 Premier League, will be contacted with an offer to attend next year’s competition.
Performances of the Champions League
Cape Cobras’ captain Andrew Puttick’s contribution in the group match against Otago was the high score of the tournament. His undefeated 104 guided a faltering Cobras middle order to an impressive score of 193, culminating in a comfortable win over Otago.
Kieron Pollard’s innings in Trinidad & Tobago’s league match against New South Wales may just be the batting performance of the tournament. Pollard entered the innings with his side at 5-91 in 13th over, needing 81 runs for victory. What followed was a brutal demolition of the Blues’ bowling attack, with Pollard making an undefeated 54 of only 18 balls to life Trinidad & Tobago to victory.
Andrew MacDonald’s 4-21 in Victoria’s league match against Bangalore was a sublime four overs which ripped the heart out of the Royal Challenger’s batting order, assuring the home side was restricted to a low score, almost certainly contributing to Victoria’s easy victory.
What Was Learnt From the Tournament
The IPL teams fared poorly compared to the other domestic teams. There was always a fear that these teams, who are only together for a month or two each year, would lack in the integrity and camaraderie shared by the more permanent domestic teams which usually play together for months every year. These fears were realized when no IPL teams made it to the semi-finals of the tournament. This will continue to be an issue in future iterations of the tournament.
