The inaugural Champions League T20 has been rescheduled from Sept-Oct to December by the founding member boards.

This has been done in a show of goodwill to the ICC.

The Twenty20 event will now be played from December 3 to December 10 where eight teams will compete, including squads from South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, England and India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa today said in a joint statement here.

The tournament was earlier scheduled to start a day after the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan is over but the ICC expressed its reservations over the fixture and requested the Governing Council to consider alternative dates for the champions league.

"While the Champions League Twenty20 is a domestic tournament not affected by ICC Event rules, we have agreed to the ICC request as a gesture of goodwill," the statement said.

Chairman and Commissioner of Indian Premier League and BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi also expressed happiness and said December would be a good time to host the event as the two finalists of the IPL would be available at this time.

"We are happy that we were able to find a window during the first week of December for the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20," he said.

"There was a gap in between the One-Day Internationals and Tests against the touring England squad and that will enable both the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings to regroup and focus on the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20," he added.

To facilitate the change, Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and the West Australian Cricket Association have agreed to reschedule the Australia-South Africa Test to December 17 instead of December 12. This creates a window between Australia-New Zealand Test at Adelaide, starting on November 28, and the new dates for the Perth Test, which will allow Australian and South African players to participate in the Champions League Twenty20.

CA Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland and CSA CEO Gerald Majola said they had consulted players and players' associations, the WACA and other stakeholders to assess the feasibility and impact of making the changes.

"We were pleased with the WACA reaction that the new playing dates offer local fans, including corporate groups wanting to entertain at the cricket, good dates for pre-Christmas Test match enjoyment.

"We also took feedback from players that the changes could be accommodated without compromising what will be a de facto World Test Cricket Championship bout between Australian and South Africa during December and January," they said.

The venues and commercial partnership details will be finalised in the coming weeks.

The inaugural contest was announced on July 30 this year, offering teams USD 6 million of prize money, the highest amount in world cricket at a domestic competition level.