September 26, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 25, 1429

MUMBAI, Sept 25: India’s three leading cricket centres — Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai — will host the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League in December, the organisers said on Thursday.

The six-million dollar tournament, featuring eight Twenty20 club sides from India, Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan, will be held from Dec 3 to 10, League chairman Lalit Modi told reporters here.

Modi, who organised the hugely successful Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 competition earlier this year, said the match schedule will be announced later.

But he confirmed Mumbai as the venue of the final on Dec 10.

The eight teams are IPL finalists Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, Western Australia and Victoria (Australia), Titans and Dolphins (South Africa), Middlesex (England) and the winners of Pakistan’s Twenty20 League, to be held next month.

The teams will be divided into two groups for a preliminary league, with the top two advancing to the semi-finals.

“I believe we have a concept that will inspire and motivate the future generations of club, state and county cricketers, while accelerating the development of the game globally,” said Modi.

“I am confident that this will be a true global event, the scale of which the cricketing world has not seen outside of the World Cups.”

The tournament has been sandwiched in the eight-day break between England’s one-day series in India which ends on Dec 2 and the first Test which starts in Ahmedabad on Dec 11.

The pan-Asian ESPN-Star network secured the 10-year commercial rights for the tournament for a whopping $900 million earlier this month, paying an additional $75 million as marketing costs.

The second edition of the Champions League will be enlarged to 12 teams and will take place between Sept 25 and Oct 10 next year, said Modi.—AFP