Champions League 2009

it will be all over by the time the team chemistry improves CC, they only play two games in the first round and as of now both the teams are in danger of getting eliminated (even if they win the second game!) what a poor format and what a ridiculous tournament to have!

The tournament is okay. It's showing off domestic talent from around the world and shows the depth of some of the top sides. NSW is a bit of a misconception because during the season they rarely have the likes of Lee, Clark and so forth playing for them. Victoria's domestic side in the CL is like that here in the competition during the summer.

first of all I think if we are to have a tournament like this (which is unnecessary in my view) then only the champion teams from 8 countries should participate (no runners up and 3rd placers and all that rubbish) If it is champions league then only champions should play, what on earth are other teams doing here?

Secondly, why such a long format? a first round a second round then SF then Finals... Keep it simple, Just one round, semis and finals.

Then like milks has pointed out, many players don't even play for their club sides initially and then all of a sudden appear for a tournament like this. there should be some control over this, if a player has not played in the domestic competition at all then he shouldn't be eligible to play in the Champions league either.


Edited by sam_ahmed - 10 October 2009 at 10:59am

Dilshan seems to go for absolutely everything these days. somehow so far it has worked out well for him, but we'll see if he continues to be consistent with such an approach.

Anyways, I love my city very much and am very happy that some of the teams are here today. Bright sunshine and lovely conditions for cricket. The 5th ODI between IND and AUS has also been awarded to us, so that's very good news for cricket in hyderabad.

They would have been better off playing actual Indian state teams, rather than IPL side...

The reason I say that Raj is because if state sides were used then the players would be more familiar with each other. The IPL teams have played in 2 blocks of 6 weeks over the past ~20 months. Somerset, Victoria, Cape Cobras, NSW and the like play a lot more together and that makes a big difference. I'm not saying the IPL teams are poor, just look at all the top players in each side from Gilchrist to Kumble, but sometimes you need more than that and we see that in football all the time. It makes sense however to use the IPL teams, but what  happens if they all get knocked out , which is actually quite possible. 

Unfortunately India can not muster up enough talent to sport 3 sides (in which only 7 players are Indian, as opposed to Vic and NSW which have sides that are 100% Australia, moreover Australian players are playing for some of the other teams - like the IPL sides and Somerset). It's disappointing, really, these are meant to be the best 3 IPL sides but they haven't shown any good form so far. The youth players coming out of India now don't look like they'll be as good as the current/recently retired mob.

Youth players playing against other youth players are not necessarily  an indicator of how that player will perform on the big stage. The current IPL outfits are not quality sides. Just look at the medium pace stocks on all those teams, none of those young Indian players are particularly noteworthy. If the Indian domestic competition is so strong then where are the top players? During the whole IPL the top players were all the accomplished overseas players, very few of the young Indians could compete against those top players. On the contrary, guys like Sohail Tanvir (Pak), Shaun Marsh (Australia), van Wyk (SA) were awesome, despite limited international, if any at all, appearances. I actually find nearly all the young Indian cricketers very disappointing. Kamran Khan did okay, but he has a suspect action and the same goes for Ojha. Suresh Raina is the only stand out player of the young Indian crop , but his international performances have been below par to say the least.

You might just say that this is only 2020, but I believe the very best players can and will excel at all formats.

Originally posted by milkman You might just say that this is only 2020, but I believe the very best players can and will excel at all formats.

Well Milky, You know that I rate all formats equally.I am not one of those who keeps saying Test cricket/ODI is real cricket stuff while IPL/T20 performances does not matter.Look you could be on that list who at sometime kept degrading IPL/T20 performances as not a real pointer of class.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 11 October 2009 at 3:26pm

Best thing about this CL is that you get to see a lot of young talent. Australia has just picked young Jon Holland, the Victorian  slow left arm orthodox bowler for the 7 match ODI series v India. He's getting exposure in Indian conditions and it was the first time I got to see him bowl, thanks to this tournament being televised here. He looked extremely good and they couldn't bag any boundaries off him. He's accurate , has beautiful seam position, throws the ball up - he's not a flat line trajectory bowler and he got a lot of spin.
      Moises Henriques, the 22 year old NSW all rounder who played one T20 International has also done well and can hit the ball a long way. Some pretty healthy talent going around and there's a few good players in these domestic sides from all the teams who will shake up national selectors.


Edited by milkman - 12 October 2009 at 3:32am

Glenn was terrific. It was as if he never left playing. what a true champion he really is!  

I would watch today's game for Tresco. I was such a big admirer of that guy - what a shame he doesn't play no more.

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi I would watch today's game for Tresco. I was such a big admirer of that guy - what a shame he doesn't play no more.

Even I am watching these games to see these oldies zuhair. Was over the moon yesterday when Gambhir said Glenn would play and then I watched the whole of the 2nd innings to see how he goes. The fielding wasn't that great from him but the first ball he bowled seemed like he's just come back after winning the Champions Trophy for Australia and this was just another game for him.

Would love to see Tresco and Langer put up some runs today. Also it would be exciting to see Dwayne Bravo.

Extremely poor pitches for a T20 tournament. If we see anything like this for the ODI's between IND and AUS the entire series will be ruined.

I have a bit to say, firstly, for tournaments like these, that Delhi pitch is a disgrace to the Cricketing world.