Cricket’s Champions League could "soon be back on the agenda following the decision to rubber-stamp the introduction of an eight-team city-based franchise model" in England from '20, according to Richard Edwards of the London INDEPENDENT. The original Champions League -- the "brainchild" of cricket’s governing bodies in India, Australia and South Africa -- was first introduced in '08 but was "eventually shelved" in '14. The last involvement by English counties came two years before the tournament’s final edition, with the England & Wales Cricket Board "pulling up the drawbridge in an effort to maintain the primacy of the County Championship, which generally clashed with a competition played as the English season reached its climax." The "ongoing success" of the Big Bash League, Indian Premier League and a host of other franchise-based T20 tournaments around the globe, though, has "kept the prospect of a re-launched competition very much alive." BBL team Melbourne Renegades CEO Stuart Coventry believes that the "breaking of tradition in English cricket would make its re-introduction a logical step." He said, "With the introduction of the new ECB’s City Franchise competition, a Global T20 Champions League annual event makes sense with the increased profile of domestic T20 tournaments worldwide." The tournament could be marketed as the "World Series" of T20 and create prize money value for clubs (INDEPENDENT, 4/12).
