2013 Champions League T20: Defending champions Sydney Sixers ignored for the 2013 edition
Defending champions Sydney Sixers will not be allowed to ‘defend’ their title.
In sports, the term “defending champions” refers to the winner of the previous edition of that particular championship. The main objective of them being called as defending champions is that they have to successfully defend their title. In some cases, the defending champions will automatically qualify for the tournament the following year and in some cases, the defending champions have to earn their place in the tournament. In maximum scenarios, they qualify for the next edition of the tournament automatically.
Despite failing to finish in the top four of the 2011-12 season of the prestigious English Premier League, Chelsea managed to sneak in to the UEFA Champions league 2012-13 as the defending champions as they defeated German giants Bayern Munich in the finals of 2011-12 edition and were crowned European champions. They were made to defend their title without playing the qualifiers and qualified directly as the fourth team from England replacing the eventual 4th place holders Tottenham Hotspur. Whereas Spain, the 2010 FIFA world cup winners are currently playing the world cup qualifiers in order to find a place among the 32 footballing nations to compete in the football carnival.
Such is not the case with the so called gentleman’s game of cricket. The top eight teams book their spots by default for the ICC world cup with the associate nations playing the qualifying tournament to seal the remaining spots. With these eight teams qualifying automatically, there is no question on whether the defending champions have qualified or not. But in the case of the cricket’s club world cup, Champions League T20 does not make any sense. The CLT20 will have the top 3 teams from IPL, the top 2 from Australia and South Africa and a team from the West Indies qualifying directly for the main round. The qualifying tournament will have the fourth place holders of the IPL and the winners of T20 leagues from Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, out of which the top two will qualify for the main round.
New South Wales Blues won the tournament in 2009 but didn’t qualify for the 2010 edition to defend their title. IPL power horses Mumbai Indians won the 2011 edition of the CLT20 and qualified fourth in the 2012 edition of the IPL, which meant that they should play and finish the qualifying tournament among the top 2 in order to secure a place in the main round. But the CLT20 governing council that has the members of BCCI, ACB and CSA, decided to allow Mumbai Indians in the main round at the expense of West Indian Champions Trinidad and Tobago on the virtue of Mumbai being the defending champions.
The 2012 edition saw the Australian side Sydney Sixers winning the Champions League T20. Later in the 2013 Big Bash League, they failed to qualify for the finals and thus they missed out on direct qualification for the 2013 CLT20. So this year’s tournament is set to take place without the defending champions.
The only question that arises in the minds of some cricket aficionados is that if theCLT20 governing council can provide the Mumbai Indians a direct entry into the tournament, why can’t they do the same for the Sydney Sixers?
The answer is too simple. The tournament is mainly targeted at the Indian audience who could give the organizers more revenue than the Australian or South African audiences. Of course, it is a fact that Mumbai was in the top 4 of the 2012 IPL and they made it to the qualifying rounds of the 2012 CLT20 from where they were given a direct entry. Whereas on the other hand; the Sixers failed to qualify for the qualifying tournament.
It would be a fair call if the CLT20 governing council had given the Sixers a chance to play in the qualifying tournament for a simple reason – being the defending champions. With the CLT20 having the MCC Spirit of Cricket as one of their agendas, it is really unfair to maintain different yardsticks for different teams. It is an iniquitous decision to leave out the Sydney Sixers from the tournament.
With the 2013 CLT20 qualifying rounds just hours away from getting kicked off, it is impossible for the Sydney side to feature in the tournament. Let us hope that the governing council rethinks their decision and allow the defending champions to take part in the tournament from the 2014 edition.