By IANS,
London : The cancellation of the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks has left England’s qualifiers for the event, Middlesex, disappointed.
The new club competition, conceived by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket South Africa (CSA), was scheduled to take place in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai earlier this month.
But with no room in the 2008 calendar for the proposed $6 million eight-team tournament, Lalit Modi, vice-president of the BCCI and chairman of Champions League Twenty20, was forced to give up on it.
It will now make its debut next October.
It came as a big blow to the teams that qualified for this year’s competition as they will have to do so again to be part of next year’s event.
Shaun Udal, the Middlesex captain, said the decision had come as a “bolt from the blue”.
“We are obviously hugely disappointed,” Udal was quoted as saying in The Guardian.
“It’s devastating news, both from a cricket and financial point of view. “However, we will just have to go out and win the Twenty20 Cup again next season.”
The event had been due to move to a new host country next year, but will now remain in India. Two teams from each of the founder countries will be invited to take part, with the countries that will provide the other participants due to be finalised next month.
The board is also expected to look at expanding the line-up from eight teams to as many as 12.
The other teams due to take part were the Titans and Dolphins from South Africa, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from India, Victoria Bushrangers and Western Warriors from Australia and Sialkot Stallions from Pakistan.