Venues for the 2009 Champions League Twenty20

The 2009 Champions League Twenty20 tournament matches will be played at three superb venues in India. These are the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad. You don’t need to know anything about these venues to enjoy the Champions League Twenty20 cricket action, but if you like to have a bit of background knowledge then the following snippets of information will be of interest…

Bangalore : Chinnaswamy Stadium

The Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore is the home of the Royal Challengers Bangalore and will host the opening ceremony for the 2009 Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. Unsurprisingly, it will also host the first match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Cape Cobras on Thursday 8 October, 2009.

The stadium is named after M Chinnaswamy who used to be president of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), and has been in delivering some exceptional cricket action to fans since 1969. International cricket fans saw Viv Richards make his Test match debut with the West Indies here in 1974 when his team played India, and that’s just one of the many highlights that this stadium can boast.

Delhi : Feroz Shah Kotla

Although the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket ground in Delhi was founded in 1883, the current name is steeped in history and refers to dynastic leaders from the 14th and 19th centuries.

Feroz Shah Kotla has recently been renovated and is home to the Delhi Daredevils, a team fancied by the bookmakers to do well in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

Hyderabad : Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium

Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium is named after one of India’s former Prime ministers and is the most recently established of the three tournament venues, having been founded in 2004.

This venue is the home of the Deccan Chargers who won the Indian Premier League Title in 2009 after a rather dismal performance in the same tournament in 2008. Unusually, the capacity of the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium was reduced from 55,000 to 40,000 for the Indian Premier League competition and remains at that lower level for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad will host the 2009 Champions League Twenty20 Final on Saturday 24 October.