The Champions League T20 tournament continues to evolve year on year, but surely one point that requires addressing sooner rather than later, is the question of qualification to the tournament proper, and the schedule for those sides involved in the qualifying competition to make it into the main competition.
When New Zealand’s Northern Knights face Lahore Lions from Pakistan on Sunday, they two participants will be playing their second qualifier in successive days, and indeed all four teams vying for the two spots in the CLT20, will be required to play three games in the space of four days.
The winner of this game will be all but through to the second round of the tournament.
For the two teams that are successful, they will then face a further four matches in a maximum of 14 days, as they attempt to make it through to the knockout stages. To say that the odds are loaded against the teams forced to take part in the pre-qualifying competition would be something of an understatement.
But for 2014 at least, that is the schedule that is in place, and the participants have to grin and bear it, as a price to pay for entering this season’s CLT20, having been successful in their own domestic T20 tournaments.
The match between Northern Knights and Lahore Lions will, like the rest of the Qualifying matches, take place at the Chhattisgarh International Cricket Stadium, Raipur. It will be the first time that these two sides have met in a T20 contest.
The Knights certainly seem to prefer batting first, as six of their eight wins during the HRV Twenty20 competition in 2013-14, came after they made first use of the strip.
The Kiwi team will be looking to skipper Daniel Flynn and openers Daniel Harris and Daryl Mitchell to set the foundations for winning scores. While in the middle order they have the hustle and bustle of Kiwi international BJ Watling and experienced Scott Styris to do the damage.
Black Cap players Tim Southee and Trent Boult will lead the bowling attack, with leg-spinner Ish Sodhi expected to play a leading part in taking wickets and restricting the run rate.