2014 Champions League T20: Squads announced, marquee players choose IPL franchises
The 12 teams participating in this year’s Champions League (CL) Twenty20, which begins on September 13 and ends on October 4, have announced their final 15-man squads for the star-studded T20 tournament. The likes of Kieron Pollard, David Miller and Jacques Kallis, who had an option of choosing between their IPL team and their home team, have opted to play for their IPL franchise, thereby continuing the trend of previous seasons.
“Like previous seasons, players who have been named by more than one team have been asked to nominate which side they are going to represent,” said Dean Kino, the CLT20 director of legal and business affairs and a member of its governing council. “Players are free to make any decision they wish. Teams are then allowed to replace any player that has withdrawn from their squad and elected to play for another side.
“CLT20 regulations state that when a player elects to play for their ‘away’ team, that team must pay the ‘home’ team US$ 150,000 compensation per player,” said Kino. Just for clarity on the matter, he went on to explain that the home team is the team from the country the player in question represents in international cricket.
The tournament proper kicks off on September 17, with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), along with KKR and CSK, are the three IPL franchises taking part in the main tournament. Mumbai Indians (MI), meanwhile, will have to get past the qualifying stage of the tournament, which features Lahore Lions (Pak), Southern Express (SL) and Northern Knights (NZ) and takes place from September 13-16 in Raipur.
Here are the squads of the 4 IPL franchises:
| Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) | Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) | Chennai Super Kings (CSK) | Mumbai Indians (MI) |
| Gautam Gambhir | George Bailey | MS Dhoni | Rohit Sharma |
| Yusuf Pathan | Mitchell Johnson | Suresh Raina | Harbhajan Singh |
| Robin Uthappa | Glenn Maxwell | Ravichandran Ashwin | Ambati Rayudu |
| Piyush Chawla | David Miller | Ravindra Jadeja | Pragyan Ojha |
| R Vinay Kumar | Thisara Perera | Ashish Nehra | Praveen Kumar |
| Umesh Yadav | Akshar Patel | Mithun Manhas | Aditya Tare |
| Manish Pandey | Karanveer Singh | Ishwar Pandey | Jalaj Saxena |
| Suryakumar Yadav | Lakshmipathy Balaji | Pawan Negi | Jasprit Bumrah |
| Kuldeep Yadav | Manan Vohra | Mohit Sharma | Shreyas Gopal |
| Jacques Kallis | Virender Sehwag | Dwayne Smith | Lasith Malinga |
| Sunil Narine | Mandeep Singh | Dwayne Bravo | Kieron Pollard |
| Pat Cummins | Rishi Dhawan | John Hastings | Mike Hussey |
| Ryan Ten Doeschate | Parvinder Awana | Brendon McCullum | Corey Anderson |
| Morne Morkel | Wriddhiman Saha | Samuel Badree | Marchant de Lange |
| Andre Russell | Anureet Singh | Francois du Plessis | Corey Anderson |
The squads of the other teams can be found here.