ICC says Champions League not part of FTP

The ICC has contradicted claims made by Lalit Modi on the IPL's official website by insisting the Champions Twenty20 League has not been incorporated into the Future Tours Programme. Modi, the IPL chairman, told the tournament's site the "Champions League has already been slotted in as part of the FTP", but Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has denied the claim.

"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," Lorgat said in a statement. "However, that was only as part of a wider discussion on when we could play the Champions Trophy, which was postponed from Pakistan in 2008 and relocated to South Africa.

"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 added that he had been in contact with Modi, and the pair were in "full agreement on this matter."

The Champions Twenty20 League, sanctioned by the ICC, gets underway on October 8, just five days after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy in South Africa. The tournament, which will feature the top domestic Twenty20 teams from Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies, finishes on October 23. The inaugural edition was set for last year but it was cancelled following the terror attacks in Mumbai.

The 2009 edition will feature 12 teams instead of eight and the venues will be decided next month.