Three lesser known Twenty20 matches and tournaments

Ever since the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), every country followed the footsteps of the success starting their own Twenty20 tournament. With a rapid increase in the number of T20 leagues and tournament around the world, there is rarely a period in a year when there is no T20 league played in some part of the cricketing world.

However, towards the start of the current decade (2010-2019), the boards had innovative ideas to capitalize on the format. There are a couple of lesser-known T20 tournaments that were played in the last decade to earn profits or to match other sports or for a charity cause. Here are three of those:

(The tournaments/matches mentioned in this article are the ones accredited with official T20 status)

3. British Asian Cup 2009:

British Asian Cup was played in July 2009 in order to raise funds for the British Asian Trust founded in 2007. The game was hosted at the Lord’s Cricket Ground that involved the inaugural IPL champions Rajasthan Royals led by Shane Warne and the 2008 England Twenty20 Cup champions Middlesex Panthers led by Shaun Udal.

This day/night game was played on 6th July which attracted 20,000 people to the stadium. Sohail Tanvir, the purple cap holder in the 2008 IPL, was permitted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to feature in this game despite the fact that the franchises had suspended/terminated the IPL contracts of Pakistan players starting 2009.

The home team won the toss and invited the Royals to bat first. Swapnil Asnodkar (41) and Faiz Fazal (27) added 55 for the opening wicket in 6.5 overs. Mohammad Kaif also scored 41 while Dimitri Mascarenhas scored a 16-ball 32 to help them finish with 162/5. Middlesex failed to achieve the required run-rate at any stage finishing with only 116/7. Tanvir took 3/20 in his three overs while Mascarenhas did well with the ball as well and had figures of 2/24; he was adjudged the Man of the Match.