T-20 bubble busted : No Indian Team in Semifinals of Champions League

The on-going Champions League T-20 has put the popularity of shortest version of Cricket in India in right perspective. The competition was slotted so as to encash the Diwali festive season. But the tournament has truned into a damp squib both in terms of stadium audeience and TV viewership. In the preliminaries, the matches involving Non-Indian teams, the response was poor, whereas for even for matches involving Indian clubs - Challengers, Chargers and DareDevils, the frenzy that all of us witnessed at the time of IPL-I was missing. Lalit Modi must have realised that you can't sell anything to Indian public in the name of Cricket.

What the Champions League is missing from earlier IPLs is the filmi flavour. With their teams not in the fray, the scenes of the filmi team owners SRK, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty charming the audience are no more there. The teams that were the part of champions League - and none of them has progressed to semifinals - Challengers, chargers and Devils - don't have that glamour content.

Chargers, IPL-II winners were knocked out in preliminary round itself while neither Challengers nor Delhi Daredevils could go through from League A. The phase of lacklustre performances by members of current Indian team continued as they could not take their respective teams further. How will the semifinals and final be received by the spectators and TV audience - is anybody's guess.

The tournament has busted another myth created by IPL success - that India has rich talemt of up-coming Cricketers. The so-called emerging talent of Indian teams failed miserably. In contrast, teams from south Africa and Australia have shown tremandous depth. The surprise package really has been Trinidad and Tobaggo. Inspite of tremandous turbulence in domestic Cricket of West Indies, the T & T outfit has displayed impressive talent in the form of Simmins, Pollard, Bravo brothers and Ganga brothers with captaincy of Darren Ganga being a revelation. The victory of T&T versus NSW was stunning. don't be surprised if Calypso dance is performed after the finals!