Warne to lead Rajasthan Royals against Victoria

Melbourne, Jun 8 (UNI) After clinching the inaugural IPL trophy, Shane Warne is all set to lead Rajasthan Royals against his home side Victoria in a new international Twenty20 club championship.

The championship will involve top Twenty20 teams from India, Australia, England and South Africa.

The IPL finalists, the Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings have already qualified for the championship. Victoria and Western Australia, finalists in last summer's KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, have also qualified as the Dolphins and Titans from South Africa's Pro20 league, said a report in 'The Australian'.

Two sides from England's Twenty20 Cup, which starts next eek, will also play in the competition, which has a total rize pool of 5 million dollar.

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) has said it expects to host the event at some stage.

CA confirmed yesterday that the tournament will be held in late September early October.

However, the international club championship clashes with the Australia's preparation for the Indian Test series and CA boss James Sutherland said he did not expect any of the team members to be available.

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

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