CLT20-style World Club Championship 'on the cards', says ECB chief executive: 'That's the next logical step'

It’s been more than a decade since the Champions League T20 (CLT20) was last hosted, with cricket’s answer to the UEFA Champions League in football having lasted a total of six editions between 2009 and 2014. And as is the case in the Indian Premier League, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians happen to be the most successful teams in CLT20 history with two titles each.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), however, is confident it can bring a CLT20-style tournament back into the cricketing calendar in the form of a revamped World Club Championship for the T20 format. Especially considering how T20 leagues have sprung up all over the globe with nearly every Full Member and even associates such as UAE hosting one of their own.

“That is on the cards. Without doubt, at some point, there will be a World Club Championship - for both men and women. That’s the next logical step,” ECB Chief Executive told ESPNCricinfo.

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CLT20 ‘was ahead of its time’, says ECB CEO

Only a handful of cricket-playing nations besides India used to conduct T20 leagues around the time the CLT20 – which was jointly run by the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa – was in existence, Australia’s Big Bash League and West Indies’ Caribbean Premier League being the most notable examples during this time.

The Pakistan Super League would come into existence shortly after the final CLT20 season and Sri Lanka (Lanka Premier League), England (The Hundred), South Africa (SA20), USA (Major League Cricket) as well as UAE (ILT20) would go on to establish their own leagues. Bangladesh Cricket Board too has been in existence for well over a decade now, but had somehow never featured in the tournament.

The CLT20 had been plagued with issues from the very beginning; the inaugural edition was originally supposed to take place in 2008 but had to be postponed by a year due to the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

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And what was to be the seventh edition of the tournament in 2015 was called off due to lack of interest from cricket fans despite providing more context to T20 leagues by having franchises from different parts of the world face each other instead of being limited to their own leagues.

“That tournament was ahead of its time. Commercially, it couldn’t keep up with the expectations on it, but it was a really good event,” added Gould, who was CEO of Somerset when it participated in the inaugural edition in 2009.