Not many are surprised that the Champions League Twenty20 has not turned out to be a blockbuster hit like the Indian Premier League. The inaugural CL has opened to dismal crowd response in most of the games except involving those of the IPL teams.

In its desperation, there are now reports that head honcho Lalit Modi is thinking of taking the League to a foreign destination.

If Mr Modi is looking for answers, he doesn't need to look beyond the difference between the participating teams in the CL. It has examples of both success as well as failure. All the matches involving the IPL teams have been near-housefuls, while the rest, involving the national Twenty20 champions and runners-up of top cricket nations, have lacked appeal.

The foreign teams have played better cricket, but it's not just about cricket anymore. The IPL teams are drawing crowds for it has big money, glamour, top stars apart from regional affiliation. Unlike IPL, in CL you have the best regional teams, not the best players. It's like having the Delhi and Hyderabad teams, instead of Daredevils and Chargers.

If IPL is based on football's English Premier League, the Champions League is based on football's European Champions League. In the European league, it's not only the EPL teams which have the foreign stars. Spain's Real Madrid has Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo; Barcelona has Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, while Itay's AC Milan has Ronaldinho; Juventus has Cannavaro. Not to even speak about football's undisputed huge global fan following.