The BCCI said Wednesday that the inaugural USD 6 million Champions League will be staged later this year.

The tournament will be a collaboration of three cricketing boards - BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, according to a statement issued by the BCCI.

The ten-day inaugural tournament will be played from September 29 to October 8. The eight teams will be representing the finalists in the various domestic leagues, as per regulations of the League.

The eight teams will play 15 matches in the inaugural Champions Twenty20. The number will move up to 12 teams playing 23 matches from year two. The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four teams each. After the preliminary league matches, the top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals and their winners will clash in the grand finale.

"After successful negotiations between the three parties we have found a way forward to launch the eight-team competition for the League. The tournament would be expanded to 12 teams from 2009. England's Middlesex county has been invited while Pakistan's Sialkot has confirmed participation," said Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, DLF-IPL told reporters after the meeting in Mumbai.

The tournament partners also clarified that the event would not flout an ICC caveat that an international competition cannot be played within seven days of completion of an ICC signature event. The ICC Champions Trophy final is slated to be played at Lahore on September 28.

James Sutherland, Chief Executive of Cricket Australia, said, "We fully understand the substance and operative part of the letter, but the League is a domestic tournament and for club, State and Provincial teams, not for national teams that come under the ICC Future Tours Programme."

Gerald Majola, CEO, Cricket South Africa said Titans and Dolphins had qualified for the Champions League and South Africa was free of international commitments from September 28 to October 8.