The Champion’s League, a multi-nation club event, was all set to take off, with eight participating teams last year, but the terror attacks in Mumbai postponed its inaugural season to October, 8th to 23rd this year, where it will be held in India. "We're working with all the member countries and the ICC, and we have together come out with the dates of the Champions League to benefit everybody," Modi said.

The League is jointly owned by the national cricket boards of Australia, India and South Africa. From the initial agreement, the number of participating teams has already been increased from eight to twelve, but Modi would love to see more teams competing: “We were always moving to 12 teams in the second year of operation as the first year had already been delayed. And we could not do it, we were always moving to 12, and we hope to increase it to more teams going forward.”

Last year, the eight teams were scheduled to be two each from India, Australia and South Africa, and one each from England and Pakistan. And this year’s 12 teams include three of the top teams from the IPL (Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils); two top teams each from Australia (New South Wales Blues and Victoria Bush Rangers), England (still to be confirmed) and South Africa (Cape Cobras and Diamond Eagles); and one team each from New Zealand (Otago Volts); West Indies (Trinidad & Tobago); and Sri Lanka (Wayamba).

Pakistan’s absence in this year’s tournament is conspicuous, and Pakistan's cricket authorities have said they weren't contacted with regard to their exclusion. This makes fears of their isolation from world cricket even stronger. However Modi insists that they do not want to isolate such a great cricketing nation. "Unfortunately, the Pakistan government won't give them [the players] clearance to come to India, and since Saturday was our cut-off date, it's not possible to have a team from Pakistan this year," Modi is quoted telling the AFP.

Pakistan had the Sialkot Stallions representing them last year, but PCB claims that they were never contacted regarding their participation: "Sialkot had been invited for the first tournament but since that was postponed; we have heard nothing from them at all. We weren't told about any cut-off dates or deadlines. I am surprised Mr. Modi is second-guessing what the Pakistan government is likely to be thinking in October," a senior PCB official told Cricinfo.

A BCCI official on the other hand said, "We don't want a problem in the last minute... with so much money at stake, we don't want to take the risk of inviting a team when - as of now - it is clear that there will be political problems with visas, clearance," he said.

All though relationships between the two nations have tempered down considerably, there are still tensions over the 2011 World Cup Hosting rights: the PCB believed that the BCCI played a hand in getting Pakistan’s hosting rights stripped, and the BCCI was livid with Pakistan’s reactions. But whatever the issues between the boards, it is a fact that Pakistan is ending-up being out-casted despite denials from everybody.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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