Although each edition held had a different format and had a different number of participating teams, each had a
group stage and a two-round
knockout stage. A qualifying stage was introduced in 2011, reducing direct entrants to only teams from India, South Africa and Australia. Each team (including qualifying stage participants) receives a participation fee of $500,000. Every edition had a total prize money of $6 million. Since 2010, it had been distributed as follows: • $2.5 million – Winners • $1.3 million – Runners-up • $500,000 – 2nd and 3rd Runners-up • $200,000 – Teams eliminated in the group stage Before the commencement of the tournament, each team names a squad of 15 players. All players must be contracted by the team for their domestic tournament. Mirroring the IPL rule, each team can field a maximum of four international players. Most of the other tournaments have a lower limit on both contracted international players and how many can play in their matches. In 2011, an exception to the rule was made for the
Mumbai Indians who, due to players being unavailable, had a squad of seven Indian players and would have been unable to put together a playing team of eleven players should another be injured. They were allowed to field five international players. That year, Mumbai won the CLT20.
Players Should a player be a part of more than one qualified team, he can play for his "home" team (the team from the country he is eligible to represent in international cricket) without consequence. If he plays for any other team, that team must pay the home team a compensation fee ($150,000 from 2011).
Indian Premier League teams have been the most popular choice for the players. In the 2010 edition, controversy arose when an IPL team contractually forced three players to play for them by utilising a clause in the rules of the IPL. The clause states that the IPL teams have first rights over their players should they qualify with another team. The choice of the players and the nature of the rules are common subjects of debate with every edition. It continued to cause confusion until 2013 when it was clarified that the CLT20 rules state the players are free to choose their team. However, for a player named in an IPL team's squad, he would have to forego 20% of his salary to choose another team. The IPL offers the most lucrative salaries and is the only tournament to have a clause relating to the CLT20 in its contracts. As a result, players are unlikely to choose against their IPL teams. For non-IPL teams wanting to keep their players, not only would they be forfeiting the compensation fee, some have felt the need to offer their players compensation in an attempt to sway their decision. The only player to have chosen another team over his IPL team was
Kumar Sangakkara in
2013. His team, the
Kandurata Maroons, lost all their matches and did not advance beyond the qualifying stage. This incentive was lessened when IPL contracts were changed in 2014 to not have player salaries cover participation in the CLT20. A player will instead receive an additional 10% of his IPL salary for representing his IPL team in the CLT20.
Participation The participating teams are from the top cricketing nations and determined by the premier
Twenty20 tournaments of those nations. Each edition has featured teams from India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the
West Indies and Sri Lanka. England have been in three editions but refused further participation after 2012 as their domestic season clashed with the tournament's dates. Pakistan has not been invited to participate in the tournament until 2012 due to the
hostility between India and Pakistan since the
2008 Mumbai attacks. As the tournament is mainly targeted at the Indian audience, all editions have featured more teams from India than any other country. From 2011, four Indian teams competed while other countries had two teams at most. India is the first choice for hosting the tournament. While the tournament format remained almost unchanged, the qualification tournaments have changed to include more overseas players and create stronger teams. The
Caribbean Twenty20 was created in the West Indies after their representative finished runners-up in the 2009 edition. It was later expanded to become the
Caribbean Premier League in 2013. Australia and Sri Lanka have expanded their tournaments to create the
Big Bash League in 2011 and the
Sri Lanka Premier League in 2012 respectively. Participation in the tournament is highly desired. Since the
Bangladesh Premier League was created in 2012, its organisers had hoped for their teams to be included in the tournament. A Bangladeshi team has yet to participate in the CLT20. The
Dhaka Gladiators, winners of the 2013 BPL, expressed their disappointment after being excluded in 2013 despite the efforts made by their management.
Venue It was originally intended for the host of the tournament to be rotated between the countries of the three shareholders: India, South Africa and Australia. The broadcasting agreement also demands that at least six of the first ten editions are to be held in India. However, Australia was not considered due to its unsuitable weather in September and due to its time zone being undesirable for the broadcaster. South Africa first hosted in 2010 but India has since been the first preference for hosting. South Africa was only chosen to host in 2012 when situations made it infeasible for India to host. ==Editions and results==