IPL authorities likely to introduce an additional qualifying round for a fourth team
The Indian Premier League (IPL) governing authorities are planning to arrange an additional qualifying stage for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, in a bid to give a chance to a fourth team from the League to participate in the
event.
The IPL chief executive, Sundar Raman, revealed on a social networking website the possibility of IPL’s fourth team participation in the Championship.
The chief said that the fourth team will have to play a qualifier tournament with the other three teams, few days before the CLT20.
The IPL 2011 edition has been a little different from the previous editions of IPL, as it has introduced two new teams – Pune http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kerala-c803.
Pune is being led by Indian World Cup winning star, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yuvraj-Singh-c98364 while Kochi have been playing under the captaincy of Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene, who was later replaced by Parthiv Patel.
Both debutants, though played good cricket in the format, but were unable to reserve a place in the play-offs.
Kochi ended the tournament at the eighth spot with six wins out of their 14 matches. On the other hand, Pune finished the tournament at the ninth spot in the IPL standings.
The four teams qualified for the knock-out stages included – Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.
According to media reports, Raman has not given any confirm statement regarding the qualifying round. However, it is expected that the tournament will be officially planned during the governing council's meeting on Sunday,in Chennai.
Indian media has reported that the qualifying round will include three T20 domestic champions from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, out of which two teams will qualify for the CL, following a six match tournament
It was also revealed that the introduction of a qualifier will transform the Champions League from a 12-team competition to a 10-team competition.
According to the format, three teams from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, each, and one team from England, are the sure participants in the League.
The Elimination Final of the ongoing IPL will be played on May 25, between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Knight-c71599 Riders at, Wankhede Stadium.
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