The schedule for the Champions League of cricket tournament to be held in India in October has been announced. The 12 teams will play 23 games over a period of 16 days over three different venues in the tournament. The matches will be played in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi, which are also the three teams which have qualified for the Champions League. M. Chinnaswamy, Ferozshah Kotla and Rajiv Ganghi stadium in Uppal are said to be the hosting stadiums.
The tournament will see the 12 teams divided into four groups of three teams each. Each of these groups will have a round-robin league, and the top two from each group will advance to the second round, making it eight teams in this stage. The teams that have advanced will further play two more games in the second round, and the top four teams will then move into the semi-finals.
The semi-finals will be a knock-out round, played on 21st of October and 22nd of October and will be followed by the all-important, grand finale on the 25th of October. The 12 teams belong to different countries like India, Australia, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. There are three teams from India, whereas Australia, South Africa and England will be represented by two teams each. West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand have one team each in the tournament.
Ten out of the 12 sides have so far qualified for the tournament. The IPL winners and runners-up, Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore will be joined by the Delhi Daredevils, while the South African franchises are Cape Cobras and Eagles. Australian sides Victoria and New South Wales will have Otago from New Zealand, Wayamba from Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies. Trinidad and Tobago had won the Stanford T20, organised by the American billionaire Allen Stanford. However, Stanford is now in police custody for an alleged fraud of billions of dollars.
The two teams from England have to qualify, but their identity will be known by the 15th of August, when their domestic T20 tournament ends.
Group A: Deccan Chargers, Trinidad and Tobago, English qualifier-1
Group B: Eagles, New South Wales, English qualifier-2
Group C: Cape Cobras, Otago, Royal Challengers Bangalore
Group D: Delhi Daredevils, Victoria, Wayamba
All matches will be played at 4pm and 8pm IST respectively. The finals will be played in Hyderabad.
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