The Airtel Champions League Twenty20 is just a fortnight away and the excitement has started to reach a crescendo.

By Rajarshi Gupta

The ACLT20 Organising Committee has promised a fest to remember.

The tourney, set to kick off in India from October 8 will see the 12 best domestic clubs across the world lock horns with each other.

Not surprisingly, therefore, a lot of pride will be at stake none more than the Australians’.

The men from Down Under have been on a downward trudge over the last one year.

Irrespective of their 6-1 pounding of a hapless England in the Natwest Series and irrespective of how they perform in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, the Aussies will be keen to see some blood being shed in India.

New South Wales Blues and the Victoria Bushrangers will travel to India to gun for glory next month.

Dean Kino of Australia, who is CL T20 Governing Council Member and Director, Business and Legal Affairs sums up the mood in his country as the CL T20 draws closer.

“Australians are tremendously involved in sports. Maybe it is the climate or the leisure, we are tremendously involved in sports.”

True. No other team has dominated world cricket like the Aussies have over the last decade and a half. Tests, ODI’s- Australia have been the team to beat.

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When Twenty20 cricket became a rage, it was no wonder why they cozied up so warmly to the concept Down Under.

“The format perhaps appeals to the Aussie sense of short and fun cricket and T20 fits in nicely in such a scenario,” Kino says.

In fact, the top administrator, who also played cricket for the Oxford University felt youngsters in the country have taken to T20 rather well.

“David Warner would never have played cricket for Australia had it not been for Twenty20. Similarly, Dirk Nannes should also credit his career to the latest razzmatazz,” Kino said.

Both Warner and Nannes, it maybe recalled, were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils in the second season of the Indian Premier League and made waves for Australia at the international level as well.

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The most refreshing thing about Kino is that he believes in the job he has been entrusted with.

He knows what his role and that of the ACLT20 Organising Committee has meant in an era of  “cricketisation”.

“We are making cricket popular. The world is telling us they want global clubs and to an extent, we are assisting the International Cricket Council.

The ICC manages cricket at the international level, which it is doing wonderfully and we are helping the game to globalise at the domestic club levels.”

The CL T20 maybe a brand new concept and a never before seen format but Kino is confident of its success.

“There is no reason why the event cannot find a place in the international level. One of our main challenges will be to focus on a building a fan-base.”

And how easy does he think it would be?

Kino trusts India’s “passion about great cricketers”. How often have Indian crowds bowed to excellence on the field, even if they had to stand up in ovation to a hundred by Ricky Ponting or a scorcher by Sanath Jayasuriya.

There is something in the air.

Call it that pang of anticipation or sheer thrill, the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 promises to deliver.

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