In a League of its own

Not many are surprised that the Champions League Twenty20 has not turned out to be a blockbuster hit like the Indian Premier League. The inaugural CL has opened to dismal crowd response in most of the games except involving those of the IPL teams. In its desperation, there are now reports that head honcho Lalit Modi is thinking of taking the League to a foreign destination.If Mr Modi is looking for answers, he doesn't need to look beyond the difference between the participating teams in the CL. It has examples of both success as well as failure. All the matches involving the IPL teams have been near-housefuls, while the rest, involving the national Twenty20 champions and runners-up of top cricket nations, have lacked appeal. The foreign teams have played better cricket, but it's not just about cricket anymore. The IPL teams are drawing crowds for it has big money, glamour, top stars apart from regional affiliation. Unlike IPL, in CL you have the best regional teams, not the best players. It's like having the Delhi and Hyderabad teams, instead of Daredevils and Chargers. If IPL is based on football's English Premier League, the Champions League is based on football's European Champions League. In the European league, it's not only the EPL teams which have the foreign stars. Spain's Real Madrid has Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo; Barcelona has Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, while Itay's AC Milan has Ronaldinho; Juventus has Cannavaro. Not to even speak about football's undisputed huge global fan following. By saying that the CL is a TV spectacle, you are fooling no one. The poor TRP ratings published in a leading national daily last week is a pointer to the lack of interest. The CL concept is good, but it will need to have the best of the best. The competing teams have to come from professional leagues; meaning the Cape Cobras need to have the spending power of Royal Challengers or Daredevils to buy the world's big names (at least four top foreigners). It doesn't need mentioning of the appeal of CL with Sachin Tendulkar and Shahid Afridi in Victoria colours and Yuvraj and Dhoni in Diamond Eagles' colours. Add a touch of glamour to it and you have a sureu2013shot blockbuster. Imagine the media frenzy about a New South Wales team co-owned by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. Till that happens, the Champions League has no hope of equalling the success of its football counterpart.