Ever since the start of the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/category/t20/ipl-indian-premier-league/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Premier League (IPL)</a>, 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)

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.

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-260824" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Rajasthan-Royals.jpg" alt="Rajasthan Royals" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260824" class="wp-caption-text">Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Getty Images)</figcaption>

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. <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/harbhajan-singh-mohammad-kaif-recall-struggle-english-language/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mohammad Kaif</a> 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.

The Stanford Super Series T20 game was played between England and Stanford Super Stars team on 1st November 2008 for a whopping 20 million dollars sponsored by Allen Stanford. The tournament included England T20 champions Middlesex and Caribbean T20 champions Trinidad &amp; Tobago. However, those matches served to be warm-ups ahead of the T20 for $20M between the combined West Indies XI and England national side.

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-187632" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Stanford-superstars.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle of the Superstars" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-187632" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of the Superstars and Sir Allen Stanford pose with the cheque. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)</figcaption>

The big game turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Superstars team bundled out England on just 99 in 19.5 overs. Sulieman Benn took three wickets while Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard bagged two wickets each. Captain Chris Gayle guided his side to a 10-wicket win with his 45-ball 68 that included five fours and five sixes. Superstars chase down the target in just 12.4 overs. Gayle’s partner Andrew Fletcher finished next with 32 off 31 balls.

All the players in the winning XI earned themselves 1 million dollars while the players on the bench shared one million between themselves. The concept of Stanford Super Series was created with a five-year contract but was called off in 2009 as Allen Stanford was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy claim. 13 out of the 14 charges laid on him by the U.S. authorities were proved and 110 years of prison was inflicted on Stanford in 2012.

1. International 20:20 Club Championship 2005:

Cricket’s version of “Champions League” bringing clubs across the globe together was successfully executed to 2009 with the name Champions League Twenty20. However, the first such league of its kind was established in 2005 when England, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka introduced domestic T20 competitions. A total of six teams participated in the 3-day tournament with nine matches.

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-260822" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Chris-Gayle-out.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260822" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of PCA Masters is bowled by Samiullah Niazi during the International Twenty20 Club Championship. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)</figcaption>

The six teams that played the tournament were English T20 champions Somerset Sabers, runners Leicestershire Foxes, PCA Masters XI, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s domestic T20 tournament winners Titans, Faisalabad Foxes and Chilaw Marians respectively. The PCA XI was led by Martyn Ball that included Chris Gayle and Indian Internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Javagal Srinath, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/umesh-yadav-selection-for-england-tour-a-well-deserved-one-parthiv-patel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parthiv Patel</a> and Robin Singh.

Three matches of the group stage played on day one were affected by rain that included two games of PCA Masters. They won the bowl-out 6-2 against Chilaw Marians while the game against Titans was abandoned. PCA XI lost to Faisalabad Wolves in the semi-final match that went down till the last ball.

The Wolves defeated Chilaw Marians CC in the final by five wickets to be crowned as the inaugural champions of the International 20:20 Championship. Mohammad Hafeez of Faisalabad was the leading run-getter and wicket-taker with 111 runs and six wickets respectively.

For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/">CricTracker</a>.

Ever since the start of the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/category/t20/ipl-indian-premier-league/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Premier League (IPL)</a>, 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:
<h6>(The tournaments/matches mentioned in this article are the ones accredited with official T20 status)</h6>
<h3>3. British Asian Cup 2009:</h3>
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.
<figure id="attachment_260824" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-260824" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-260824" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Rajasthan-Royals.jpg" alt="Rajasthan Royals" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260824" class="wp-caption-text">Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
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. <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/harbhajan-singh-mohammad-kaif-recall-struggle-english-language/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mohammad Kaif</a> 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.
<h3>2. Stanford 20/20 for 20 (in 2008):</h3>
The Stanford Super Series T20 game was played between England and Stanford Super Stars team on 1st November 2008 for a whopping 20 million dollars sponsored by Allen Stanford. The tournament included England T20 champions Middlesex and Caribbean T20 champions Trinidad &amp; Tobago. However, those matches served to be warm-ups ahead of the T20 for $20M between the combined West Indies XI and England national side.
<figure id="attachment_187632" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-187632" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-187632" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Stanford-superstars.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle of the Superstars" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-187632" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of the Superstars and Sir Allen Stanford pose with the cheque. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
The big game turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Superstars team bundled out England on just 99 in 19.5 overs. Sulieman Benn took three wickets while Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard bagged two wickets each. Captain Chris Gayle guided his side to a 10-wicket win with his 45-ball 68 that included five fours and five sixes. Superstars chase down the target in just 12.4 overs. Gayle’s partner Andrew Fletcher finished next with 32 off 31 balls.
All the players in the winning XI earned themselves 1 million dollars while the players on the bench shared one million between themselves. The concept of Stanford Super Series was created with a five-year&nbsp;contract but was called off in 2009 as Allen Stanford was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy claim. 13 out of the 14 charges laid on him by the U.S. authorities were proved and 110 years of prison was inflicted on Stanford in 2012.
<h3>1. International 20:20 Club Championship 2005:</h3>
Cricket’s version of “Champions League” bringing clubs across the globe together was successfully executed to 2009 with the name Champions League Twenty20. However, the first such league of its kind was established in 2005 when England, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka introduced domestic T20 competitions. A total of six teams participated in the 3-day tournament with nine matches.
<figure id="attachment_260822" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-260822" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-260822" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Chris-Gayle-out.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260822" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of PCA Masters is bowled by Samiullah Niazi during the International Twenty20 Club Championship. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
The six teams that played the tournament were English T20 champions Somerset Sabers, runners Leicestershire Foxes, PCA Masters XI, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s domestic T20 tournament winners Titans, Faisalabad Foxes and Chilaw Marians respectively. The PCA XI was led by Martyn Ball that included Chris Gayle and Indian Internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Javagal Srinath, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/umesh-yadav-selection-for-england-tour-a-well-deserved-one-parthiv-patel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parthiv Patel</a> and Robin Singh.
Three matches of the group stage played on day one were affected by rain that included two games of PCA Masters. They won the bowl-out 6-2 against Chilaw Marians while the game against Titans was abandoned. PCA XI lost to Faisalabad Wolves in the semi-final match that went down till the last ball.
The Wolves defeated Chilaw Marians CC in the final by five wickets to be crowned as the inaugural champions of the International 20:20 Championship. Mohammad Hafeez of Faisalabad was the leading run-getter and wicket-taker with 111 runs and six wickets respectively.
<h4 class="p1">For all the latest&nbsp;cricket news&nbsp;and other updates follow&nbsp;<a href="https://www.crictracker.com/">CricTracker</a>.</h4>

Ever since the start of the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/category/t20/ipl-indian-premier-league/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian Premier League (IPL)</a>, 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:
<h6>(The tournaments/matches mentioned in this article are the ones accredited with official T20 status)</h6>
<h3>3. British Asian Cup 2009:</h3>
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.
<figure id="attachment_260824" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-260824" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-260824" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Rajasthan-Royals.jpg" alt="Rajasthan Royals" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260824" class="wp-caption-text">Rajasthan Royals. (Photo Source: Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
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. <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/harbhajan-singh-mohammad-kaif-recall-struggle-english-language/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mohammad Kaif</a> 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.
<h3>2. Stanford 20/20 for 20 (in 2008):</h3>
The Stanford Super Series T20 game was played between England and Stanford Super Stars team on 1st November 2008 for a whopping 20 million dollars sponsored by Allen Stanford. The tournament included England T20 champions Middlesex and Caribbean T20 champions Trinidad &amp; Tobago. However, those matches served to be warm-ups ahead of the T20 for $20M between the combined West Indies XI and England national side.
<figure id="attachment_187632" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-187632" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-187632" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Stanford-superstars.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle of the Superstars" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-187632" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of the Superstars and Sir Allen Stanford pose with the cheque. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
The big game turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Superstars team bundled out England on just 99 in 19.5 overs. Sulieman Benn took three wickets while Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard bagged two wickets each. Captain Chris Gayle guided his side to a 10-wicket win with his 45-ball 68 that included five fours and five sixes. Superstars chase down the target in just 12.4 overs. Gayle’s partner Andrew Fletcher finished next with 32 off 31 balls.
All the players in the winning XI earned themselves 1 million dollars while the players on the bench shared one million between themselves. The concept of Stanford Super Series was created with a five-year contract but was called off in 2009 as Allen Stanford was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy claim. 13 out of the 14 charges laid on him by the U.S. authorities were proved and 110 years of prison was inflicted on Stanford in 2012.
<h3>1. International 20:20 Club Championship 2005:</h3>
Cricket’s version of “Champions League” bringing clubs across the globe together was successfully executed to 2009 with the name Champions League Twenty20. However, the first such league of its kind was established in 2005 when England, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka introduced domestic T20 competitions. A total of six teams participated in the 3-day tournament with nine matches.
<figure id="attachment_260822" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-260822" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-260822" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Chris-Gayle-out.jpg" alt="Chris Gayle" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-260822" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Gayle of PCA Masters is bowled by Samiullah Niazi during the International Twenty20 Club Championship. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
The six teams that played the tournament were English T20 champions Somerset Sabers, runners Leicestershire Foxes, PCA Masters XI, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s domestic T20 tournament winners Titans, Faisalabad Foxes and Chilaw Marians respectively. The PCA XI was led by Martyn Ball that included Chris Gayle and Indian Internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Javagal Srinath, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/umesh-yadav-selection-for-england-tour-a-well-deserved-one-parthiv-patel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parthiv Patel</a> and Robin Singh.
Three matches of the group stage played on day one were affected by rain that included two games of PCA Masters. They won the bowl-out 6-2 against Chilaw Marians while the game against Titans was abandoned. PCA XI lost to Faisalabad Wolves in the semi-final match that went down till the last ball.
The Wolves defeated Chilaw Marians CC in the final by five wickets to be crowned as the inaugural champions of the International 20:20 Championship. Mohammad Hafeez of Faisalabad was the leading run-getter and wicket-taker with 111 runs and six wickets respectively.
<h4 class="p1">For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/">CricTracker</a>.</h4>

Towards the start of the current decade (2010-2019), the boards had innovative ideas to capitalize on the format, but it didn't quite work out as planned.

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.

Three lesser known Twenty20 matches and tournaments

Towards the start of the current decade (2010-2019), the boards had innovative ideas to capitalize on the format, but it didn't quite work out as planned.

1. International 20:20 Club Championship 2005:

For all the latest cricket news and other updates follow CricTracker.