Cricbeat

2011 Champions League Twenty20 will be the 3rd edition of the Champions League Twenty20, the tournament will be held in India from September 23 to October 9,2011. The defending champions of the league are the Chennai Super Kings.

Overall, there will be 10 teams. Teams from India (Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians), Australia (NSW Blues and South Australian Redbacks) and South Africa (Cape Cobras and Warriors) will battle it out in the preliminary stages. The remaining 3 teams will be decided after a qualifier between teams from the Caribbean, New Zealand, India, England and Sri Lanka. The teams have been categorized under 2 groups. The inaugural match will be played between Chevrolet Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore on September 23, at the prestigious M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

The teams have been randomly pitted against each other. After the qualifying rounds get over, 3 teams will enter into the main competition. 10 teams will fight it out for a place in the semis, after which there is the grand finale. Since, T20 is a fast paced game, none are deemed as favorite. Every team has a sure shot chance of defeating the others and making it to the semis. People will have to wait till the end of the tournament, i.e. October 9, in order to find out which team is crowned the champion of champions.

Qualifier : Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL), Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies), Auckland Aces (New Zealand), Ruhunu Eleven (Sri Lanka), Somerset (England) and Leicestershire (England).