?England's loss could be the West Indies gain, as far as participation in the upcoming Champions League T20 tournament in India is concerned. A West Indian official who has been following the developments among the Champions League officials and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said yesterday the English are holding firm in not changing their domestic schedule to facilitate their two top teams going to the IPL. Lalit Modi, the Champions League Twenty20 commissioner, has asked the ECB to make "minor adjustments" to its county schedule to enable English participation in the 2010 tournament. Modi's said the tournament schedule, which clashes with the last fortnight of the English domestic season almost rules out county teams taking part as they did last year.
The tournament is scheduled to be played between September 10-26. The dates, Modi said, were dictated by the countries' pre-committed series in the ICC's existing FTP. The ECB's main grouse is that the dates coincide with the final two rounds of the County Championship as well as the semi-finals and final of a new 40-over league. According to the official: "One team from the Caribbean took part in the last tournament and two came from England. Even before the issue with the English domestic tournament dates, the officials were considering having two teams from the West Indies play in the 2010 tournament. It now seems very likely that this would happen."
"What helped sparked the interest in having two West Indian teams in the tournament was the fact that T&T played very well at the last tournament, which gives an indication of the quality of the T20 tournament back in the Caribbean." The winners will get US$6 million, with US$2.5 million going to the runners-up. The Champions League Twenty20 is run by the boards of India, Australia and South Africa and its governing council comprises representatives from each board. Other countries participate in the tournament by invitation.