ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09: Schedule/ Fixture

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The second season of Indian Cricket League (ICL) kicks off with the first tournament- ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09- gets underway from 10 October 2008. Nine city-based teams including newly formed ‘Dhaka Warriors’ will take part in the Twenty20 championship. ‘Dhaka Warriors’ and ‘Lahore Badshahs’ are formed with the cricketers from Bangladesh and India. The other seven teams are the based on different major cities across India and include players from several cricket-playing countries. ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09 starts with the opening match between Hyderabad Heroes vs Lahore Badshahs at the Lal Bahadur Stadium (Fateh Maidan), Hyderabad.

Indican Cricket League (ICL), initiated and organized by Subhash Chandra’s Essel group, started its journey last year with its first season, that incldued four successfully held tournaments based on ODI and Twenty20 formats. In the aftermath of a battle between Essel group-owned Zee Sports and BCCI for the television rights of Indian cricket team in India, ICL came into being last year. However, ICL does not have recognition from BCCI and ICC (International Cricket Council) yet. ICC did not give the recognition citing that it would not recognze ICL unless it gets recognition from BCCI, the cricket controlling body in India. Moreover, BCCI also banned all the ICL players from any official tournament organiszed by BCCI or any of its local entities. Last but not the least, BCCI also managed to convince the other cricket controlling boards in other countries to ban their ICL players from taking part in domestic cricket as well as international cricket. However, ICC did not out any ban on ICL players from representing their countries in international cricket.

The first season started with six teams initially, but two new teams were formed later on in 2008. Initially there were four venues, but the mathes of second season will take place in five different venues across India.

Venus of ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09

The venues of the tournament are as follows:

· Lahari Cricket Ground, Hyderabad

· Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera

· Teri Oval, Gurgaon

· The Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Panchkula

· Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad

I already mentioned that there are nine participating teams in the ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09. Recently, 13 Bangladeshi cricketers, including current and former natioal team players as well young players from Bangladesh cricket Academy, joined ICL in a mass-exodus to form new ICL team, ‘Dhaka Warriors,’ led by former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar. Later on, young Bangladeshi batsman Nazimuddin also joined ‘Dhaka Warriors.’ Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) also took no time to ban all the cricketers, who signed contracts with ICL, for ten years from all forms of official cricket organized by BCB. Balwinder Sandhu is the coach of ‘Dhaka Warriors.’

Participating Teams

Here, I am giving all the names of the nine teams of ICL second season:

· Ahmedabad Rockets

· Chandigarh Lions

· Chennai Superstars

· Delhi Giants

· Dhaka Warriors

· Hyderabad Heroes

· Lahore Badshahs

· Mumbai Champs

· Royal Bengal Tigers

Tournament Formats

In the first tournamnet of the ICL second season, ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09, there will as many as 40/41 matches (depending on how many finals needed to decide the winner). All the participating teams will play against each other once in the group stage in a round robin league system. Four teams with highest amount of points earned through the group stage matches will get into the semi final stage. The first placed team of the point table faces the fourth team of the table in the semi final, while the second and third palced teams will take on each other in another semi final. The winner of the two semi final matches will face each other in the best of three final for the championship title.

Here, I am giving the schedule of ICL Season II’s first tournamnet, ICL 20-20 Indian Championship, 2008/09:

So, ICL fans will get to see nine teams this time and competition among the teams will be much more intense than it was in its debut season. I personally like the tournament format and the schedule. To begin with, the format of the tournament seems to be very competitive. All the teams will have to face every other team once in the group stage that ensures a good interaction among the all participating teams in the tournament. I also like the best of three final systems because it gives one of the best two teams of group stage to come in the championship challenge.

Let’s come to the schedule. The first eight matches will take place at the Lal Bahadur Stadium (Fateh Maidan), Hyderabad. Then the teams will move to Motera for a week as the next eight matches will be held at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera. Then the next eight matches are scheduled to take place at the Teri Oval stadium in Gurgaon. Then comes The Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula where next eight matches will take place. The again the tournamnet will move to Lal Bahadur Stadium (Fateh Maidan), Hyderabad for the five matches including the first semi final of the tournament. The second semi final match, however, will take place in Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera. First of the three finals will be held at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, the only match to take place in this ground. The next two final matches are scheduled to take place at the Lal Bahadur Stadium (Fateh Maidan) in Hyderabad.

This way the tournaments will travel across the venues for a particular period of time and thus, players will not need to travel every now and then and the fans who like to follow the ICL matches might also feel comfotbale. One more thing is that by rotating the venues, ICL organizers will be able to create a sustainable impression among the local cricket fans in five venues in what it would help the organizers popularize ICL across the country.