Former India player Aakash Chopra has picked his top five T20 leagues globally. While opining that the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the best, he said there was close competition for the second position.

Franchise-based cricket leagues have proliferated across the world in the last few years. The Mumbai Indians (MI) recently acquired a 49 percent stake in the Oval Invincibles team in The Hundred, with a few other IPL franchises also showing interest in acquiring some of the other sides.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ the former India opener chose the IPL as the best T20 league in the world and opined that Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) was a potential contender for the No. 2 position.

“I will start with the IPL, of course. It’s at No. 1. It’s head and shoulders above the rest. It’s becoming bigger and bigger. It might be a five to six-month league going forward, just like the English Premier League, or it might have two editions, a big league of two to two-and-a-half months, and a three-week league,” he said (3:25).

“There is a fight at No. 2. You could have kept the Big Bash League at No. 2 because it’s been consistently happening for the longest time. A good board organizes it. They also revolutionalize the game a little. Their packaging was excellent,” Chopra added.

However, the cricketer-turned-commentator picked the SA20 ahead of the BBL at the No. 2 spot.

“However, I am actually going with a bit of a greenhorn. It has started recently and I feel it has been outstanding. I am going with SA20 at No. 2. I like SA20 a lot, not because I have worked in it a little, I have also voiced Sydney Thunder’s highlights in Hindi, but there was a fan connect in the SA20 from the first day, and the standard of cricket is very good,” Chopra reasoned.

Aakash Chopra kept the Big Bash League at No. 3 position. While observing that the Australian league had lost its novelty, he said it had created a legacy as the spectators associated with it.

“There is a big tussle for No. 4 and No. 5” – Aakash Chopra on his top 5 T20 leagues in the world

In the same video, Aakash Chopra chose the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to complete the top five but couldn’t pick one ahead of the other.

“There is a big tussle for No. 4 and No. 5. One is the Caribbean Premier League, which has been happening for a very long time, and the other is the Pakistan Super League. I am a little split between these two leagues. I was willing to go with the Caribbean Premier League, but the Pakistan Super League is also equally good,” he said (5:10).

To conclude, Aakash Chopra opined that all other leagues, including the International League T20 (ILT20), the Lanka Premier League, the Major League Cricket (MLC), and The Hundred, came after his chosen top five.