Champions League Twenty20 Buried, Australians Not Amused

The cancellation of the Champions League Twenty20 has not gone down well with the Australians. Two Big Bash League teams - Sydney Sixers and New South Wales Blues - have won the tournament twice and feel the scrapping of the Champions League Twenty20 as a step in the wrong direction.

Big Bash winners Sydney Sixers were scheduled to play the tournament in September but the decision to cancel CLT20 has left them in the lurch. Sixers won the championship in 2012. Now suspended Chennai Super Kings were the defending champions.

Sixers general manager Dominic Remond said he was "very disappointed", according to a report in Sydney Morning Herald.

"For the players, the opportunity to perform on the world stage, against the best teams, has been a huge motivation for making the BBL final," Remond said.

"As a club we have built our roster around being very competitive at this level ... with the intention of having a world-class team at the Champion's League. We will now have to review our strategy and focus on winning BBL05 and some silverware for our members and fans."

The Champions League Twenty20 was promoted by the cricket Boards of India, Australia and South Africa. But BCCI's domination was clear considering the fact that the sponsors always came from India. Lack of interest from fans and commercial stake holders were the reasons for cancelling the tournament that had a $6 million prize pool, with $2.5 million going to the winners.

CA's Mike McKenna said he was disappointed the competition will not go ahead, but saw genuine value in the concept, reported SMH.

"We are committed to exploring new opportunities to deliver on the original objective of the Champions League, which was to provide further context and meaning for domestic T20 competitions around the world and opportunities for players to experience high-level competition in a different environment," said McKenna, CA's general manager of operations.