SYDNEY, Dec 13: Australian state associations Victoria and Western Australia said on Saturday they would each lose more than $600,000 (US$397,000) following the cancellation of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India.

Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide and his WA counterpart Graeme Wood said they would seek some compensation from Cricket Australia.

Dodemaide, who said Cricket Victoria had already spent at least $50,000 (US$33,000) in costs associated with entering the tournament, felt some form of compensation should be made available.

“It [the tournament] has been pushed back a year, fair enough, but there’s also some significant benefits coming back to Australian Cricket over the term, so I certainly would think it’s reasonable to have that discussion and let’s just see if there’s some form of compensation [from CA],” Dodemaide said.

The inaugural six-million dollar Twenty20 Champions League will now be held in India in October next year, organisers said on Friday.

WA and Victoria will have to attempt to re-qualify for the 2009 edition by finishing either first or second in this summer’s Australian domestic Twenty20 series, which involves the six state sides from Dec 26 to Jan 24.

The Champions League tournament, featuring the top eight Twenty20 domestic teams from Australia, South Africa, India, England and Pakistan, was initially scheduled to be held from Dec 3-10 in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

It was put off after last month’s terror strikes in Mumbai and was expected to be held in January, but has now been postponed again until next October.—AFP