A new domestic Twenty20 competition will begin in England next year with the winners qualifying for the lucrative Champions League.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Wednesday that the two-division competition would be staged in June and will not replace the current Twenty20 Cup.
The make up of the top division of the new P20 tournament would comprise the top three teams in each of the three groups of this season's Twenty20 competition.
"I am sure this will be another exciting development in the domestic cricket season," ECB chairman Giles Clarke said in a statement. Playing conditions and the number of overseas players permitted for each county would be discussed at the next ECB board meeting.
Middlesex and Kent were to have played in the inaugural Champions League tournament last year in India but the event, also featuring the winners and runners-up of the domestic Twenty20 tournaments in Australia, India and South Africa, was postponed after the Mumbai atrocities in November.
The winners of the tournament would have received $6 million. The first edition of the Champions League will be held in September-October this year with 12 teams taking part.
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