English counties ruled out of Champions League T20

London:

Left with no room to manoeuvre its calendar once again, the England Cricket Board has barred its county teams from participating in this year's Twenty20 Champions League as the revised dates clash with the end of the domestic season.

In a memo circulated to the counties, the ECB announced it was "with great regret" that the Friends Provident T20 finalists would be unable to participate in the Champions League.

The ECB had already shifted the county fixture list once to accommodate the Champions League, which was originally scheduled for early October.

But the scheduling of a one-day series between India and Australia meant the tournament was brought forward to September 10-26, which left the ECB with no room for manoeuvre.

The board got the unanimous support of all the counties which were of the view that ECB should not bend to BCCI's will this time to fix the tournament for October.

The board, however, said that English clubs should be able to play in next year's Champions League in September and the following year, when it is set for October.

The absence of the two counties mean that they, and the ECB, will lose out heavily financially. The board was guaranteed just under 1 million pounds, while the counties stood to make between 1,20,000 and 1.5 million pounds, the Daily Telegraph reported.