Cricket Australia (CA) has made it clear that itdoesn't intend to roll back its commitment to the Champions League, despite theimpact on Test preparations, insisting that the money generated by thetournament is important to develop the game at the grassroot level.
Media rights of the Twenty20 event were sold to ESPN-StarSports for USD 900 million in 2008, in a decade-long deal, and CA has aone-third share in the tournament with India (50 percent) and South Africa (17per cent). The annual dividend to CA is about USD 6 million.
This year's event was staged later than usual, running upagainst Australia's heavyweight clash with South Africa, because of the ICCWorld T20, messing with Test preparations.
"We're in Champions League for the long term, and thebenefit it creates for Australian cricket is quite significant, and that flowsright down to community cricket," a CA spokesman was quoted as saying bythe 'Sydney Morning Herald'.
"We're a shareholder in it and we benefit from a shareof the media rights and that makes a significant contribution to the financialperformance of Australian cricket, which flows down to clubs, schools,indigenous programs and the like. We're just not in a position to compromisethat.
"We have to manage it as best we can just as we manageplaying three forms of the game on a continuing basis," he added.
Injured all-rounder Shane Watson was summoned home earlyfrom the Champions League but Australia's coaching hierarchy wanted him to skipthe tournament altogether.
Pat Cummins, a member of the Sydney Sixers' winning team,had developed a stress injury in his back, and CA team performance manager PatHoward was upset that he wasn't informed about the pacer's soreness straightaway.