Note the above is not to be confused with the Champions Trophy mess which has to do with security in Pakistan and non Asian teams and players threatening to pull out of the ODI champions trophy (though the Asia cup is held there this week and the same security concerns exist for the Asian teams).
The first Champions League is expected to be held in India in September with teams from South Africa, India, Australia and England/Pakistan. I find the tournament inherently flawed. It forces players to play against another team they represent and probably played an instrumental part in both teams' success.
For example, Albie Morkel will be able to play for either South Africa Titans or the Chennai Super Kings (and he had good performances for both of them). Lets say the IPL forces him to play for CSK, will that be fair to him or the Titans? Then the titans will not be able to put the best possible team and will not be a "champions" league.
Lets take the reverse scenario, CSK losing out on Morkel, Hayden (who prefers to play a tour match :-)) and Hussey who will prefer to play for Australia, Western Australia and CSK in that order. The CSK team will be one of the weakest instead of one of the strongest.
Playing against a team you represented in the same year and will represent in the next year, must rankle a little bit atleast for the players? Financial compensation will not be enough.
I am not going to talk about the ICL-English counties issue (but that is a mess as well).
I think it is time that the "Champions League" concept was reviewed. Any examples of this in any other sport where you play against your own team?
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2 comments:
RS,
The IPL franchisee owners have to compensate the foreign players team. It is an heft sum.
Then it is not a "champions" league - is it?
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