Raman appointed CEO of Champions League

The Governing Council of the Champions League Twenty20 has appointed Sundar Raman, the Chief Executive Officer, and Dhiraj Malhotra, the Tournament Director, for the inaugural tournament to be held from December 3 to 10.

Champions League Governing Council also appointed the entire management team with the best of talent from across the founding member boards, a release said here on Tuesday.

Australian Dean Kino, was appointed Director Legal and Business Affairs and Michael Brown, General Manager Cricket Operations and South African Brian Bassson, Cricket Programming and Logistics.

Other appointments include Radhika Moolraj, Assistant to the Chairman, Poorna Patel, Manager Hospitality, Leila Mallya, Public Relations Manager, Nidhi Chaudhary, Operations Director and Venue Manager, and Preeti Mehta and Russell Adams, both venue managers, the release added.

Lalit Modi, Chairman of the Champions League Twenty20, while making the announcements said, "It gives me great pleasure to make the appointments to these important positions for the Champions League Twenty20.

"The organisational infrastructure for the Champions League Twenty20 has taken shape. They constitute a highly resourceful and talented team and have done a wonderful job managing cricket for the respective boards. I am confident that they will bring to bear all their experience to make the Champions League Twenty20 a huge success," he added.

Sundar Raman, is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Indian Premier League and played a crucial role in the highly successful organisation of the IPL earlier this year. He has been working on Champions League ever since IPL inaugural edition concluded. He will take on this responsibility in addition to his role with IPL.

Dhiraj Malhotra an ex army officer was also the Tournament Director for IPL and has been with the International Cricket Council for the last 3 years. He has worked on the inaugural T20 world cup in South. Africa and also the world cup in West Indies. In addition he has worked on various Champion Trophies and under-19 world cups

Eight teams, consisting of the reigning winners and runners-up from the domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, Australia and South Africa, plus the reigning Twenty20 champion Sailkot from Pakistan, and the reigning Twenty20 Cup champion from England, Middlesex, have been invited to contest the 2008 Champions Twenty20 League.

The tournament offers teams US$6 million of prize money, the biggest prize money in the world for cricket at a domestic competition level. The prize money, including US$3 million for the winning team, will be shared equally between the teams and their players.

The Governing Council of the event and its founding cricket boards believe the significant prize money to be paid to teams and players will ensure that the benefits of the event will foster cricket’s development by injecting new funding into domestic-level cricket and at the same time will handsomely reward domestic-level cricketers and provide a unique opportunity for a higher public profile for players at the level below international cricket.

2009 Champions Trophy date finalised

The ICC will hold the postponed Champions Trophy between September 24 and October 5, 2009, it was decided during the second day of its board meeting in Dubai. The announcement ends months of uncertainty about the event which was originally scheduled for September this year in Pakistan but was postponed after several participating countries refused to travel over security fears in the country.

The new dates were formalised after detailed discussions between Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, and officials of various national boards, many of whom will have now have to adjust their international programme to accommodate the event. The ICC, too, has had to make an adjustment of its own to accommodate the event, shortening its duration from the original 17 days to 12, including a reserve day for the final.

The ICC also said the event will be held in one city, possibly to ensure foolproof security arrangements, though Pakistan's fate as host will be decided only after a review following India's tour of the country in early 2009. Lahore and Karachi were the original venues. David Morgan, the ICC president, welcomed the decision to find a place for the tournament despite an increasingly packed Future Tours Program (FTP) and Lorgat thanked the participating countries for their cooperation. "I'm hugely encouraged by the spirit of togetherness and teamwork shown by our members in ensuring we have found a place for the Champions Trophy in next year's calendar," Lorgat said.

The ICC board's decision means the BCCI, which had originally refused to adjust its international programme to allow the postponed event, will have to reschedule the second edition of the Twenty20 Champions League, which had originally been slotted for September 25-October 10. India has also tentatively scheduled a seven-ODI home series against Australia to start from October 13 next year.

N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, said that "there will be no clash of dates". "The new programme takes into account a provision for the Champions League also," Srinivasan told Cricinfo.

According to Lorgat, for whom the result of today's decision is an achievement of sorts considering the initial opposition to the new window, the tournament needed to be held as it is "vitally important for the world game".

The Champions Trophy is expected to rake in around USD 40 million, most of which will be redeployed for the development of the game. "The tournament, with its new format of the top eight teams playing in a short, sharp event, is vitally important for the world game because it allows those members, as well as the developing cricket world, to grow the sport," Lorgat said.