Mumbai wins CLT20 but nobody cares

The Mumbai Indians won the Champions League Twenty20. Does anyone care? Maybe a few Mumbonians/Mumbainians/Mumbaiz do, but most people were about as interested in the tournament as I am in purchasing any of the ‘Limited Edition’ prints that Tony Greig and Channel Nine frequently try to flog.

And that’s if they even knew the tournament was on.

Disinterest and ignorance aside, the tournament actually produced some highly entertaining cricket. This included a number of close finishes, some sterling individual performances and plenty of DLF Maximums (or as they are more commonly referred to, sixes).

Essentially, the tournament included all the things that Twenty20 cricket promised when it initially took the cricketing world by storm.

So for those cricket tragics that missed CLT20 2011 and want to sound knowledgeable among their fellow cricket nerd brethren (and also because lists are fun), here are the top seven things to know about this year’s tournament.

1) Trinidad and Tobago is dangerous and invigorating

Trinidad and Tobago are simultaneously, the worst and most exciting cricket team on the planet (I think Tobago is the exciting half).

They were in more heart-stopping finishes than a hospital’s emergency department would be, if free Viagra were handed out at the local retirement village.

Always keeping the opposition in the game was Trinidad and Tobago’s captain Daren Ganga.

Ganga is either less astute than the conversation occurring in a strip club at 2am or just plain stubborn. When a fielding plan is not working, he sticks to it, invariably to the benefit of the opposition.

2) David Warner hit the highest score in CLT20 history

That history is only three years old but Warner’s 135 not out for New South Wales was not solely brute force, as it also featured a lot of good cricket shots.

In saying that, Warner did play one very unconventional shot – a pull shot over cover. You can see it here. It is as weird and unbelievable as it sounds.

3) No monkeying around

The two main protagonists in ‘Monkeygate’, Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh, were on the same team – the Mumbai Indians.

Technically this first happened in the last IPL season, but in this tournament ‘The Turbanator’ was now captain and the two were actually at the crease together in one match.

Controversy was anticipated. I prayed for one of them to run the other out.

It didn’t happen. In fact, they almost acted as if they were friends. I started to think I had stepped through a vortex into a parallel universe.

Maybe Harbahjan was just letting Symonds believe they were friends so he could then perform the ultimate betrayal and drop Roy for the semi-finals? Which is exactly what happened did in the end.

Singh’s plan played out perfectly. Harbhajan should write ‘Evil genius at work’ on the back of his turban.

4) How the Aussie teams went

NSW made the semi-finals and South Australia bombed at the group stage. Shaun Tait still likes bowling beamers.

5) The commentary was as benign as it is in the IPL

I’m sure you already knew that this would be the case but it still hit me like a tracer bullet to my ears.

6) Lasith Malinga won the man-of-the-series award

It’s always an interesting tidbit knowing who was voted player of a tournament but don’t quote the official CLT20 website reason for Malinga being given the award, unless you want to be laughed at.

According to the CLT20 website, he received the award “for bowling the way he did and playing some good knocks with the bat too.”

What is this? Cricket for simpletons?

Are the CLT20 organisers also going to copy Derek Zoolander’s idea and fund a “Centre For Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Want To Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too”?

7) Mumbai won the tournament even though Tendulkar was injured

The trophy was Mumbai’s first silverware despite being one of the favourites in almost every edition of the IPL so far.

Mumbai won CLT20 2011 and finally reached their potential but it was without their uber-star player, some guy called Sachin.

This is important to know, because you will want to bring this up with any of your Indian friends, if you are keen to start an argument about Tendulkar being overrated.

There you have it. All the key points about a tournament nobody cares about.

As a true cricket tragic, you will make note of these and raise them for discussion to ‘stump’ any of your fellow cricket-lovers for whom you doubt their fidelity.

But why do so few people care about the Champions League T20?

In the end, despite the quality of cricket and the numerous exciting finishes, the tournament still failed to demonstrate its value in the already highly-congested international cricket schedule.

I understand that the CLT20 exists so that cricket boards beside India’s, can get their own taste of that sweet, sweet IPL money pie (which I believe tastes like a combination of a Honda motorcycle, a Nokia mobile phone and Pepsi).

However, what value does the tournament provide to the cricketing public on top of the IPL?

It could be easily argued that the Indian Premier League is kind of a Champions League in itself. The IPL is the best T20 players from around the world playing in a club tournament. It’s just it has an Indian slant to it.

In some cases at this year’s CLT20, there were more cheerleaders at the matches than there were people in the stands.

This would probably be a good thing if there were 20,000 people at each match. Unfortunately, when the crowd consists of three unemployed people, a food vendor and his goat, the atmosphere fails to inspire.

The die-hards and their goats will always have an interest in the tournament, but the continuing issue of fans experiencing cricket fatigue is likely to plague this tournament for years to come.

No matter how good the cricket is, if so few people care what is the point?

Additionally, people tend to easily forget what happens in a tournament such as this.

Because Twenty20 is so hit and giggle, it is easily forgettable. In two months time, even I will probably be referring back to this article to remember what happened.