Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi, one of the torchbearers of the Champions League, has said that cricket's latest attraction did not arise from the IPL.
Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi, one of the torchbearers of the Champions League, has said that cricket's latest attraction did not arise from the IPL.
"Representatives of Cricket Australia, the BCCI and Cricket South Africa talked about the possibility of a Champions League even before the concept of the IPL was invented. We've been talking about this for years and it's been a matter of getting the right time and place to launch.
"Whereas the IPL certainly helped leverage interest in the event, the Champions League stands by itself as an international event. It becomes the apex of all domestic events around the world; its context and relevance is through domestic events," Modi was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.
"The Champions League," he said, "has been developed to embrace club cricket all round the world. It's a place where we can find young cricketers who then play for their national sides. The IPL is a great example of a domestic club-level tournament, and similarly nations around the world have club tournaments. The objective here is not to make money, it is to build the game, to build club-level cricket, to find and nurture new talent.
Money is not the criteria. The objective here is that we have some of the best players around the world and we hope that in years to come the Champions League comes to symbolise what the UEFA is to football."
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