The defunct Champions League T20 (CL T20) could well be reintroduced as early as September next year, following strong support from key member nations at the International Cricket Council’s annual conference that concluded Sunday, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Among those part of the ICC’s calendar working group are Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Richard Gould, and the ICC’s newly-appointed chief executive Sanjog Gupta. The group is expected to present interim findings to the ICC board, headed by Jay Shah, before the end of the year.
The first edition of CL T20 was held in October 2009 and continued until 2014, when ESPN Star reportedly cut its losses after committing an inflated 10-year rights fee of $975 million in 2008. For context, the next highest bid was a Sony Entertainment Television India (SET)-Dubai Investment Council (DIC) consortium bid of $651.3m.
The report notes that one of the biggest challenges for the revived CL T20 will be determining which clubs players will represent. It estimates that the world’s top T20 players now participate in at least two and, in some cases, four or five different leagues each year. The ICC and partner countries will need to decide which teams these players will represent, and how the finances of the new league will be split.
An earlier report by The Cricketer revealed that CL T20  could be revived under a new name — World Club Championship — in 2026. The league is expected to follow a similar structure to the original CL T20, with title-winning teams from T20 leagues worldwide, including the IPL, BBL, PSL, SA20, and The Hundred, competing against each other.
