Top 5 Twenty20 cricket leagues in the world

2. Champions League Twenty20 (India and South Africa)

Champions League T20

Also referred to as the CLT20, this is an annual international Twenty20 cricket competition played between the top domestic teams from the main cricketing nations. It is jointly owned by the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa.

The league was conceived following the successful first season of the Indian Premier League. The three main owners formulated plans of having an annual international extravaganza in order to tap into the growing popularity of T20, especially after India won the inaugural World T20 Championships in 2007.

Owing to various issues, including a brief standoff between the BCCI and the ECB regarding the selection of ICL players for this tourney, scheduling conflicts with the ICC and the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the tournament finally kicked off in late 2009.

Each team gets a participation fee of $500,000, while the total prize money on offer is $6 million. The top three teams in the IPL, the top two from the Big Bash League and the Ram Slam T20 Challenge (South Africa) and the winner of the CPL T20 in the Caribbean are direct entrants, while the qualifiers have one IPL team, and the winners of the domestic leagues in New Zealand (HRV Cup), Sri Lanka (SLPL), and the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

BBL franchise Sydney Sixers are the current holders of the CLT20 title, while the MS Dhoni-led IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings won it in 2010. Australia’s David Warner has scored the maximum runs in the tournament while Sri Lankan slinger Lasith Malinga has bagged the most wickets.