Champions League squads

Teams have now confirmed their final 15-man squads for the Champions League Twenty20. The squads are:

Trinidad & Tobago Daren Ganga (capt), Sherwin Ganga, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons, Dave Mohammed, Kieron Pollard, William Perkins, Samuel Badree, Rayad Emrit, Navin Stewart, Sunil Narine, Adrian Barath.

Victoria Cameron White (capt), Brad Hodge, Peter Siddle, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Jon Holland, Clint McKay, Rob Quiney, Matthew Wade, Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Damien Wright, Bryce McGain.

Delhi Daredevils Virender Sehwag (capt), AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, Dirk Nannes, Dinesh Karthik, Daniel Vettori, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Pradeep Sangwan, Aavishkar Salvi, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas.

New South Wales Simon Katich (capt), Phillip Hughes, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Moises Henriques, Nathan Hauritz, Doug Bollinger, Aaron Bird, Stephen O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steve Smith, Daniel Smith, Dominic Thornely, David Warner.

Otago Craig Cumming (capt), Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Aaron Redmond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Greg Todd, Hamish Rutherford, Derek deBoorder, Nick Baird, Warren McSkimming, Neil Wagner, Matt Harvie, James McMillan.

Cape Cobras Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, JP Duminy, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Claude Henderson, Monde Zondeki, Vernon Philander, Henry Davids, Ryan Canning, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Derek Brand, Francois Plaatjies.

Wayamba Jehan Mubarak (capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath, Farveez Maharoof, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Jeevantha Kulathunga, Mahela Udawatte, Thisara Perera, Sameera Soysa, Shalika Karunanayake, Isuru Udana, Ishara Amerasinghe, Chanaka Welegedara, Michael Vandort.

Sussex Michael Yardy (capt), Dwayne Smith, Luke Wright, James Kirtley, Piyush Chawla, Ed Joyce, Joe Gatting, Robin Martin-Jenkins, William Beer, Andrew Hodd, Christopher Nash, Ben Brown, Rory Hamilton-Brown, Yasir Arafat, Chad Keegan.

Diamond Eagles Boeta Dippenaar (capt), Dillon du Preez, Morne van Wyk, Mthandeki Tshabalala, Adrian McLaren, Ryan McLaren, Victor Mpitsang, Ryan Bailey, Jandre Coetzee, Cornelis de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks, Alan Kruger, Rilee Rossouw, Shadley van Schalkwyk.

Somerset Justin Langer (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Zander de Bruyn, Omari Banks, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Pete Trego, Arul Suppiah, Alfonso Thomas, Max Waller, Charl Willoughby, Wes Durston, Mark Turner, Jos Buttler, Ben Phillips.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Anil Kumble (capt), Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Jesse Ryder, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Akhil Balachandra, Rajesh Bishoni.

Deccan Chargers Adam Gilchrist (capt), VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Fidel Edwards, Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, Pragyan Ojha, Y Venugopal Rao, T Suman, Azhar Bilakhia, Harmeet Singh, SM Shoaib.
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Nannes to play for Delhi in the CL

Australian Dirk Nannes will represent Delhi Daredevils in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, a move that would cost the Indian Premier League side USD 200,000.

Of the nine cricketers eligible to play for multiple teams, only Nannes was nominated in the preliminary squads of both the Daredevils and Victorian Bushrangers.

"Dirk Nannes, who was nominated by both the Delhi Daredevils and the Victorian Bushrangers, has informed Champions League Twenty20 that he will play for his 'away' team, the Delhi Daredevils, rather than his 'home' team, the Victorian Bushrangers," Dean Kino, a CLT20 Governing Council Member, said in a statement.

"As a result, Delhi is required to pay USD 200,000 compensation to Victoria according to regulations. The other players who were eligible for multiple teams will compete for their 'home' teams in the tournament, while Dwayne Smith who was considered an 'away' player for both Deccan and Sussex, will represent his English team," Keno said.

Besides Nannes and Smith, other cricketers who faced the loyalty dilemma were Nathan Bracken (NSW Blues, Royal Challengers Bangalore), Brendon McCullum (Otago Bolts, NSW Blues), David Warner (NSW Blues, Delhi Daredevils), Cameron White (Victorian Bushrangers, Royal Challengers Bangalore), Andrew McDonald (Victorian Bushrangers, Delhi Daredevils), Herschelle Gibbs (Cape Cobras, Deccan Chargers) and Farveez Maharoof (Wayamba, Delhi Daredevils).

Young Indian leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who represents Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, will be turning out for Sussex Sharks in the USD 6 million prize money event commencing at Hyderabad on October 8.

Chawla has been named in the preliminary squad of the English county outfit for the tournament concluding on October 23.

After the 12 teams submitted their preliminary squads for the October 8-23 event, the organisers said of the 234 players nominated, 110 have played international cricket.

"The announcement of the preliminary squads ensures the first Champions League Twenty20 will be a true contest between the best of the best. A congregation of the world's best players, playing for the world's best domestic teams, vying for the ultimate prize to be crowned Champions - we could not have asked for anything more," Chairman of the CLT20 Governing Council Lalit Modi said.

"The calibre of players named by the competing teams is extraordinary. We have World Cup champions, both in 50-over and Twenty20 cricket, international captains, legends of the game and some of the world's top-ranked players," he added.

Teams now have until September 7 to trim their squads to 15 ahead of the tournament.

Illustrating the quality of the world-class squads that have been named, New South Wales Blues and the Delhi Daredevils will each be capable of playing a team wholly comprising of international players.

Wayamba, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Victorian Bushrangers meanwhile have 10 internationals each in their ranks.

The other teams have equally impressive line-ups.

Trinidad & Tobago and Sussex feature nine players with international experience, while the Cape Cobras and Deccan Chargers have eight, Otago has seven and the Diamond Eagles and Somerset have four apiece.
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Champions League throws up tough choices

Many of the 12 teams participating in the Champions League Twenty20, starting in Bangalore on October 8, face tough choices in selecting their final squads after officials released updated tournament rules today. These regulations will force teams like Delhi Daredevils, the IPL qualifiers, to cut down on their foreign strength to minimise a payout for "away" players - pegged at $200,000 for each player - and Sussex to omit Murray Goodwin because of the batsman's past links with the ICL. Deccan Chargers have already decided to let Herschelle Gibbs play for Cape Cobras, his home team.

Delhi have four foreign players - Dirk Nannes, David Warner, Andrew McDonald and Farveez Maharoof - whose home teams have also qualified for the tournament. They'd have had to shell out $800,000 as compensation for all four players but are planning to call up only two of them.

"Under CLT20 rules, provided a player qualifies for more than one team, all those qualifying teams can nominate that player," the tournament organisers said. "If the player then decides to play for an 'away' team rather than his 'home' team (the team from the country he is eligible to represent in international cricket), the 'away' team must pay US$200,000 compensation to the 'home' team." This process will obviously happen in consultation between the teams and the players involved.

Sussex, meanwhile, will have to do without Goodwin after it was confirmed that players who have played unofficial cricket will not be allowed to play in this edition of the tournament. However, the organisers said, teams are not disqualified from the 2009 CLT20 if they played rebel players in their qualifying tournament, provided they terminated their rebel contracts before May 31.

So, unlike last year, when Kent were barred for having ICL players in their squad, Sussex will not be disqualified for having played Goodwin in their domestic Twenty20 tournament, which is considered as the qualifying round for the Champions League. Goodwin, the former Zimbabwe player, quit the ICL before May 31.

Amrit Mathur, the chief operating officer of Delhi, confirmed that his team will reduce its foreign strength while submitting a preliminary list of 20 players by August 24, the first deadline. This list will be pruned to 15. "We have to maintain a balance between Indian and foreign players in the final 15," Mathur told Cricinfo. "Besides, we will also have to consider that there is a certain payment involved for fielding foreign players whose home teams have also qualified."

The case of Dwayne Smith, the West Indies allrounder, is interesting because he can play for Sussex and Deccan Chargers, neither of which is his home team. Although the rules don't stipulate any payment in such cases, there is nothing to prevent the teams from arriving at a separate arrangement.

"Once a team names its initial squad, CLT20 will assess which players have been listed for two or more teams," Dean Kino, Champions League's governing council member and director, legal and business affairs, said. "Players who have been nominated by multiple teams will then be contacted by CLT20 to nominate their chosen team. Players will then be given 24 hours to determine which team they wish to represent."

The Champions League Twenty20, which is a multi-nation multi-club event, was set to start on December 3 last year but was aborted after terrorists struck in Mumbai, one of the main venues, on November 26. This time, invitations have been extended to this year's domestic toppers from seven countries, including Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils (India), New South Wales Blues and Victorian Bushrangers (Australia), Cape Cobras and Diamond Eagles (South Africa), Sussex Sharks and Somerset Sabres (England), Otago Volts (New Zealand), Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies) and Wayamba (Sri Lanka).
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McCullum commits to Otago for Champions League

Brendon McCullum has confirmed that he will be playing for Otago Volts in the inaugural Champions League. The wicketkeeper-batsman also said that he was not interested in playing for New South Wales, after the Australian domestic team showed keen interest in using his services for the tournament to be played in India from October 8 to 23.

McCullum, who featured for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, was one of several players eligible to play for two sides in the upcoming Champions League, which features 12 domestic teams from across the globe. He helped the Australian side win the Twenty20 Big Bash final and also played a key role in Otago's successful run in the State Twenty20 title.

The Champions League council released a statement yesterday saying teams could list players who were eligible for more than one squad, and that it would be up to the player to decide where he would play.

"Yes, Brendon McCullum has elected to play for Otago in the Champions League. He made this decision about two weeks ago," Ross Dykes, the Otago Cricket Association chief executive, told Cricinfo. A Cricket New South Wales spokesman also said that McCullum had told chief executive Dave Gilbert that he would play for the New Zealand domestic team.

Under the Champions League tournament rules, New South Wales would have had to pay $US200,000 ($NZ298,000) to Otago for McCullum's services.

Otago had originally picked McCullum for the 19-member provisional squad for the tournament and Dykes said he always had been confident that he would play for them. Dykes confirmed that the squad which will be cut to 15 next month. "We will trim our squad to 15 on about September 12-15," he said.

Otago have been placed in group C in the Champions League, alongside IPL runners-up Royal Challengers Bangalore and Standard Bank Pro20 champions from South Africa, the Cape Cobras.
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