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Cricket's version of the Champions League has been unveiled.

The eight team tournament will feature teams from England & Wales, Australia, South Africa and India.

It has been inspired by the successful new Indian Premier League (IPL).

The two finalists from England's Twenty20 Cup - won last season by Kent Spitfires - will come up against India's Rajasthan Royals (which have just won the IPL) and Chennai Super Kings, Australia's Western Australia and Victoria, and the Titans and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins from South Africa.

The tournament starts in September.

England's Twenty20 Cup starts om Wednesday and is hugely successful, drawing in crowds of thousands for each game.

Cricket Champions League unveiled

BBC

Kent Spitfires won the 2007 Twenty20 Cup in England

Four major national governing bodies have unveiled plans for a Twenty20 Champions League tournament.

The authorities in England and Wales, India, Australia and South Africa have set up an eight-team event over 10 days with a £2.5m cheque for the winners.

Such rewards are unprecedented in English cricket, where most counties make a loss and rely on funding from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The tournament will be in India or the Middle East starting in late September.

The announcement comes after discussions between the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Australia, the Board for the Control of Cricket in India and Cricket South Africa, and is inspired by the success of the Indian Premier League.

English cricket will be represented by the two finalists from the ECB Twenty20 Cup, which takes place on 26 July.

They will line up against India's Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, Western Australia and Victoria, and the Titans and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins from South Africa.

"The ECB Twenty20 Cup will be even more fiercely contested this season in the knowledge that the two teams who reach the final will qualify for the Champions League," said ECB chairman Giles Clarke.

Australia's international cricketers will not be available for the inaugural tournament later this year, however, due to touring commitments.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said Ricky Ponting's team are committed to playing in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, which runs from 11-28 September, and a four-Test tour of India during October and early November.

"I think leading into the Test series which starts in the first week of October, it is unlikely that any of our Test players are able to play," Sutherland said.

Sutherland added, though, that he hoped the competition would become an annual event.

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"Obviously each of those four countries have a domestic Twenty20 competition each year, and we'd like to think the winners of each of those competitions can play off on an annual basis."

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew believes many questions need answering.

"What about England's one-day cricketers, as they will be unavailable for almost all of the domestic Twenty20?

"Would Peter Moores release them, and, if so, what effect would that have on their county team?

"And where are the other countries like the West Indies, New Zealand and Pakistan?" he added.

"In fact, is this the first split between the haves and have-nots?"

This year's Twenty20 Cup starts on Wednesday.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport

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