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 Group Stage Starts Saturday on ESPN Caribbean and ESPNPlay.com

 The Group Stage of the fourth edition of the Champions League CLT20, which features some of the world’s top teams, including clubs from the Indian Premier League, the Caribbean, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, starts this Saturday October 13 at 7:20 a.m. ET on ESPN Caribbean and ESPNPlay.com.  A Pakistani club will also be featured for the first time.

Caribbean cricket fans can look forward to seeing some of their favourite cricketers turning out for their Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, including Dwayne Bravo (Chennai Super Kings), Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians).

Trinidad & Tobago failed to qualify today despite posting a strong 181 for 3 – the highest score of the qualifying stage, before rain forced abandonment of the match against Uva Next. Darren Bravo at 54 not out and Denish Ramdin at 50, were among the runs in the game against Uva Next which also failed to advance to the qualifying stage of the tournament. The Trinidad & Tobago team included several stars including Ravi Rampaul and Samuel Badree, fresh from their participation on the West Indies team which won the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday, October 7, 2012.

The CLT20 will see participation of superstars from top club teams such as India’s Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi (Hampshire), Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene (Delhi Daredevils), Australia’s Shane Watson (Sydney Sixers),South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (Kolkata Knight Riders), New Zealand’s Brendon McCallum (Kolkata Knight Riders) and England’s Kevin Pietersen (Delhi Daredevils).

The CLT20 is being played across four venues in South Africa: Centurion, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.  Eight teams had previously qualified for the main tournament while a further six teams competed in the qualifying stage from October 9-11, 2012.  The top two teams from the qualifiers Yorkshire and Auckland have now joined the other eight in the main tournament—Perth Scorchers, Sydney Sixers, Highveld Lions, Titans, Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings.

ESPNPlay.com, ESPN Caribbean’s broadband network serving West Indian fans, is simulcasting all CLT20 matches live.  ESPNPlay.com is available to subscribers of participating cable systems by logging onto their provider’s web site or ESPNPlay.com.  Fans are also able to replay all 2012 Champions League Twenty20 matches at their convenience on the site.

ESPN Caribbean will cover the rest of the event exclusively in the West Indies, including the Group Stage, October 13-24; the Semi Finals, October 25-27; and the Finals, Sunday October 28.

2012 Champions League Twenty20 on ESPN Caribbean and ESPNPlay.com:

ESPN Caribbean and Cricket Programming 

ESPN Caribbean is part of ESPN International, a division of ESPN, Inc.  ESPN International has grown to include ownership — in whole or in part — of 48 television networks outside of the United States, as well as a variety of brand extension businesses, which allow ESPN to reach fans in over 200 countries and territories. ESPN International business entities include television, radio, print, internet, broadband, wireless, consumer products, and event management.

ESPN Caribbean is home to important regional and international cricket matches.  In addition to the International Cricket Council events listed below, ESPN Caribbean presents the Champions League Twenty20, Caribbean Twenty20, the Caribbean Regional Super50 and Caribbean Regional 4-Day.

Media Contacts:

Ardi Dwornik, 646-547-5612, [email protected]

Marcia Erskine, (876) 960-3170 / (876) 876-960-5308, [email protected]