ECB suffer blow over new League
India have released details of an agreement with South Africa and Australia for a new lucrative Champions League tournament to be staged later this year.
The agreement effectively ends England's hopes of staging a rival Champions League competition and will almost certainly force the England and Wales Cricket Board to reach agreement with India or face exclusion from the Champions League riches.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India have already stated they have no objection to Middlesex, the Twenty20 Cup winners, from entering the Champions League but are not prepared to accept finalists Kent because of their Indian Cricket League players Justin Kemp and Azhar Mahmood.
Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League and BCCI vice-president, said: "The Champions Twenty20 League will be played by [the] eight best [club] teams in the world."
The tournament - staged from 29 September to 8 October - boasts total prize money of £3million.
