Another extravagant Twenty20/T20 tournament is about to be kick started from today. The Twenty20 Champions league tournament borrows from the popular European Champions league tournament, and features champions and runners-up from several nations in the tournament.

The Twenty20 Champions leagues will dish out $6 million USD in prizes, with the winner of the tournament getting richer by USD $2.5 million.

For the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League 2009, there are 12 top teams from across the world in the fray. The team lineup is as follows.

• Deccan Chargers – IPL 2009 Winners
• Royal Challengers: Bangalore – IPL 2009 Runners-up
• Wayamba – Sri Lanka Twenty20 Champions
• Cape Cobra – South Africa Twenty20 Champions
• Otago – New Zealand Champions
• Trinidad and Tobago – Stanford 20/20 winners
• Eagles – England’s Twenty20 Cup Winners
• Somerset – England’s Twenty20 Cup Runners-up
• New South Wales – Australia Twenty20 Champions
• Victoria – Australia Twenty20 Runners-up
• Sussex – Winners of Twenty20 Cup 2009
• Somerset – Runners-up of Twenty20 Cup 2009.

The tournament consists of 23 matches which will played across a span on 16 days in India. The tournament will have 4 groups with 3 teams in each group, which will then be cut down to 8 teams to form 2 groups.

The 8 teams in the second stage will then play a round-robin out of which the top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-final. The matches will be played in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Twenty20 Champions League Match Schedules

• Thu Oct 8: 1st Match, Group C – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Cape Cobras at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Fri Oct 9: 2nd Match, Group B – Eagles v New South Wales at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Fri Oct 9: 3rd Match, Group D – Delhi Daredevils v Victoria at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Sat Oct 10: 4th Match, Group C – Cape Cobras v Otago at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Sat Oct 10: 5th Match, Group A – Deccan Chargers v Somerset at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Sun Oct 11: 6th Match, Group B – New South Wales v Sussex at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Sun Oct 11: 7th Match, Group D – Delhi Daredevils v Wayamba at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Mon Oct 12: 8th Match, Group A – Somerset v Trinidad & Tobago at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Mon Oct 12: 9th Match, Group C – Royal Challengers Bangalore v Otago at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Tue Oct 13: 10th Match, Group D – Victoria v Wayamba at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Tue Oct 13: 11th Match, Group B – Eagles v Sussex at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Wed Oct 14: 12th Match, Group A – Deccan Chargers v Trinidad & Tobago at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Thu Oct 15: 13th Match, League B – C1 v D2 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Fri Oct 16: 14th Match, League A – A2 v B2 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Fri Oct 16: 15th Match, League A – A1 v B1 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Sat Oct 17: 16th Match, League B – C2 v D2 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Sat Oct 17: 17th Match, League B – C1 v D1 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
• Sun Oct 18: 18th Match, League A – A2 v B1 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Sun Oct 18: 19th Match, League A – A1 v B2 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Mon Oct 19: 20th Match, League B – C2 v D1 at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Wed Oct 21: 1st Semi-final between Winner B v Runner up A at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
• Thu Oct 22: 2nd Semi-final between Winner A v Runner up B at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad
• Fri Oct 23: Champions League Twenty20 Final at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad

Considering that the tournament consists of the top teams from across the world, the Champions League Twenty20 will definitely be worth watching.

If you cannot watch the matches live on television, click here to watch Twenty20 Champions League matches live online.