CLT20 Set To Return In 2026 as World Club Championship. The Champions League T20 (CLT20) was the biggest franchise tournament in world cricket. It is back with a new name, the World Club Championship, and is likely to start in 2026 with the best teams in the world. The World Club Championship is designed to bring back the excitement of the CLT20, which had its last tournament in 2014, and to take franchise cricket to a continent-wide level.
The inspiration is taken from the UEFA Champions League format in football. The tournament will ultimately comprise men’s teams, but they have also not ruled out having women’s franchise champions in the future, continuing to grow the global women’s game.
Champions from Top T20 Leagues to Compete Globally
CLT20 will include from many of the best T20 leagues, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), Big Bash League (Australia), The Hundred (England), Pakistan Super League (PSL), SA20 (South Africa), ILT20 (UAE), Major League Cricket (USA), and many others. The most important cricket boards in the world, including BCCI, ECB, CA, and CSA, have been in discussion, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) is also involved, with reports that it is a great initiative.
The World Club Championship is anticipated to be conducted in a combination of group stage and knockout format, which creates a competitive environment for the best franchises to contest for global dominance. Various obstacles will need to be overcome (the biggest need would be to find a suitable window in an already congested international and domestic schedule). The organizers will also need to consider things such as player workloads and conflicts with clubs with already established team ownership, as various IPL franchises own teams in different leagues.
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Despite these issues, there have been positive vibes around a global T20 club format. If done correctly, the World Club Championship in 2026 should shake up franchise cricket and become the top global tournament that fans have been waiting for since the end of CLT20.
