T20 fiesta begins amid fixing gloom

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Under the watchful eyes of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), the glitzy Champions League Twenty20 tournament starts on Friday with the shadow of the spot-fixing scandal game hanging over it.

Featuring the top three Indian Premier League teams and the top two each from Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the West Indies, the two-week event will open with IPL runners-up Mumbai Indians taking on Highveld Lions of South Africa. Organisers say the tournament will have strict anti-corruption measures in place to ensure that the menace of spot-fixing, which has led to the suspension of three Pakistani cricketers, does not find a mention in the event. Apart from Mumbai, the other Indian teams in fray are IPL champions Chennai Super Kings and third-place finishers Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Australia will be represented by South Australia Redbacks and Victoria Bushrangers, while South Africa will have the Warriors and Highveld Lions in their group.

Central Stags (New Zealand), Wayamba Elevens (Sri Lanka) and Guyana (West Indies) are the other three teams in the field.

None of the IPL teams who competed last year could make an impression and the three teams playing this year would seek to make amends for the previous edition’s flop-show. Leading the pack would be Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, who have a formidable line-up of big-hitters such as Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp.

Their bowling line-up features leading Test off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and they will be favourites to advance to the semifinals from Group A, which also features the Warriors, Victoria, Wayamba and Central Stags. Bangalore, who were there in the field even the last time around, have a stronger batting line-up to boast of with the ever-reliable Rahul Dravid, explosive New Zealander Ross Taylor and the versatile South African legend Jacques Kallis. The bowling has inspirational skipper Anil Kumble leading the spin department with Dale Steyn adding zing to the pace attack.

Kallis normally plays for the Warriors, while Taylor pads up for the Central Stags but both the players were bought by the IPL franchise after paying a $200,000 to their respective state teams.