T20 Champions League put back

2008-08-14 14:17

Sydney - The inaugural Twenty20 Champions League competition has been pushed back from its initial date of September-October and will instead be played in early December, organisers announced on Thursday.

The governing council of the Champions League, which will feature the leading provincial teams from India, Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan, agreed to a request from the International Cricket Council to push back the competition.

The later dates will allow for a gap between the end of the Champions Trophy international 50-over competition scheduled for September.

The changed dates meant the first Test between Australia and South Africa will be pushed back, to start on Dec. 17 rather than Dec. 12.

"While the Champions League Twenty20 is a domestic tournament not affected by ICC Event rules, we have agreed to the ICC request as a gesture of goodwill," a statement from the governing council said.

The Champions League will offer $6m in prize money, half of which will go to the winning team.

The expected participants in the inaugural competition will be Australian state teams Victoria and Western Australia, Indian Premier League finalists Rajasthan and Chennai, South Africa's Titans and Dolphins, English county Middlesex and Sialkot from Pakistan.

Initially the competition was intended to include the top two teams from the English Twenty20 Cup but runner-up Kent was not invited because its team included players who had played in the Indian Cricket League - an unauthorized rival competition to the Indian Premier League.

- SAPA