28 May,2009 10:43 AM IST | | PTI
Contradicting Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi's claims, the ICC has made it clear that the Champions League Twenty20 was not part of its Future Tours Programme (FTP).
Modi had said on the IPL's official website that an annual window for the Twenty20 event, which will be held later this year in India between champion teams of seven countries, will be created in the FTP.
"Champions League has already been slotted in as part of the FTP. For an international tournament of this magnitude and this quality, we are working with all the member countries and the ICC," Modi had said.
But ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat clarified that FTP does not include any fixtures between domestic teams, even those from more than one country.
"The FTP does not include any fixtures between domestic teams, even those from more than one country, and only features ICC events, such as the ICC Cricket World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC World Twenty20, and bilateral fixtures between Full Member international teams," Lorgat said in a statement.
"I have been in touch with Lalit Modi, a Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and the Champions League, and we are in full agreement on this matter," added Lorgat.
"The ICC Board, which includes all Full Members, worked together last October to come up with a date for this year s Champions League tournament that was mutually convenient for all.
"However, that was only as part of a wider discussion on when we could play the ICC Champions Trophy, which was postponed from Pakistan in 2008 and relocated to South Africa," he added.
The Champions League Twenty20 featuring domestic teams from Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, will be held from October 8 23.
