Warne to captain Royals against Victoria

MELBOURNE: Shane Warne will captain his Indian Premier League (IPL) champion side Rajasthan Royals against his home side Victoria in a new international Twenty20 club championship that will involve top Twenty20 teams from India, England, South Africa and Australia.

According to a report in The Australian, Victoria and Western Australia, finalists in last summer's KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, have qualified as have Indian Premier League finalists, the Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings and the Dolphins and Titans from South Africa's Pro20 league.

Two sides from England's Twenty20 Cup, which starts next week, will also play in the competition, which has a total prize pool of $5m.

The tournament with a multi million prize money is expected to be held in either India or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year, although Cricket Australia (CA) says it expects to host the event at some stage. CA confirmed Saturday that the tournament will be held in late September early October.

Details are still being finalised, but so far the boards of the four countries have agreed that national duties will take precedent over the T20 competitions.

But the international club championship clashes with the Australian side's preparation for the Indian Test series and CA's James Sutherland said he did not expect any of squad members would be available.

"It is expected it will start in late September, early October and will be a 10 day event," he said.

"There's very good prize money and I am sure our players will be very excited at the prospect of playing on the international stage.

"It's unlikely that too many of our Test players will be available to play," Sutherland said.