Fate of Champions League under cloud

The fate of the 2015 Champions League Twenty20 is set to be discussed during the IPL's governing council meeting in Delhi on Monday. While a section in the BCCI, the major stakeholders in CLT20, is keen to shelve the tournament, a final decision will only be taken after consulting with all the stakeholders.

According an IPL insider, the governing council members have been "sounded off" about the possibility of the CLT20 being "called off". It is understood that the BCCI and the broadcaster, Star Sports, are not keen on continuing with a tournament that has failed to garner attention - from fans as well as advertisers - in its six editions.

Since its inception in 2009, the tournament has failed to attract title sponsors, spectators as well television ratings. As a result, the BCCI wants to put its foot down on the other two stakeholders - Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa - to pull the plug on the tournament.

The only glitch for the tournament to be called off permanently is it would affect revenue models of all the franchises, especially the IPL teams. Since four IPL franchises are assured of featuring in the CLT20, a part of all the IPL franchises' sponsorship deals is based on the team's qualification for the CLT20.

For the non-Indian franchises, the appearance money of $200,000 is so huge that it exceeds the sponsorship revenue for most of the participating teams. If the IPL franchises are convinced about the non-utility of CLT20, then the BCCI will go ahead with the termination of the tournament. In such a case, the biggest losers will be the non-IPL franchises.