In a big move for franchise cricket, the famous and vanished Champions League T20 is coming back in 2026 with reinvention. This time, it will be reportedly called the World Club Championship where one can imagine Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on the Lahore Qalandars. This possibility is on the way, picking up the trend for cross-league tournament, seeing popularity of nation wide T20 leagues.
Matching to the format of CLT20, the revised tournament with broad participation will bring together the winning teams from the IPL, Big Bash League (BBL), The Hundred, Pakistan Super League (PSL), SA20, and other top T20 leagues around the world.
This idea has garnered support from the BCCI (India), the ECB (England), and ICC chairman Jay Shah. The ECB’s CEO Richard Gould has even suggested that champions of The Hundred should be included instead of Vitality Blast winners, showing full-interest with future plans.
Why bring CL T20 back now?
The original Champions League T20 started in 2009 and ran until 2014, but it stopped because of low TV ratings and lack of sponsors. Back then, only a few leagues took part, and the IPL teams dominated. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians both won the title twice.
But after a decade, things have changed. Today, almost every cricket nation has its own popular T20 league. There are more teams and a bigger global audience. This makes it the perfect time to redesign the tournament in a bigger and better form.
According to ECB CEO Richard Gould, “Without doubt, at some point, there will be a World Club Championship for both men and women. That’s the next logical step.” The demand for cross-league championship is on the rise, but expected obstacles lie on the way.
Hurdles for additional and revamped CL T20 Tournament
The action plan for reintroducing CL T20 in new shape is expected to meet challenges. There are a lot of questions to be answered about tight scheduling, workload management and mechanism for revenue-sharing. With a power-packed cricket tournament schedule, and exhaustion tendency for players will be major concerns to see this tournament become practically possible in the future.
If everything goes as planned, the World Club Championship will become cricket’s answer to football’s UEFA Champions League, giving fans a grand event where the best club teams in the world face off.
More details about the number of teams and the exact format will be announced soon. The tournament is expected to start in 2026.
