Shaun Udal leads a crusade to capture £2m prize

Even if England allow batsman Owais Shah to miss out on preparations for the First Test against India in order to rejoin his county for a few days, not many people will change tack and suddenly predict a triumphant march to the final for Middlesex Crusaders.

Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals and Mahendra Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings are joint-favourites ahead of an event that also includes two classy teams from Australia (Victoria Bushrangers and Western Warriors), a pair of South African contenders (Pretoria Titans and Natal Dolphins) and one dark horse out of Pakistan (Sialkot Stallions).

But, then, Middlesex were not given much of a chance in last summer's Twenty20 Cup, only to emerge as England's domestic champions and open up a whole new world for themselves.

"That's fine if people underestimate us," said captain Shaun Udal, whose team leave for India on Thursday. "No one fancied us and they were writing us off all the time, even before finals day. Four teams went to the Rose Bowl and we were 11-1 outsiders, so being discounted suits us down to the ground."

Having failed to make any decent progress in the first five seasons of Twenty20 cricket, Middlesex could not have chosen a better time to get to grips with the shortest form of the game.

Beating Durham and then Kent at Southampton guaranteed the Crusaders a place at Sir Allan Stanford's Caribbean table last month.

And, even more appealing from a financial point of view, they booked a spot in the first Champions League; an eight-team, two-group tournament which Udal's men will help to launch a week tomorrow when playing Victoria in the opening game in Mumbai.

Having failed to rise to the occasion in Antigua a few weeks ago, losing to England, the Stanford Superstars and Trinidad, their first objective will be to do themselves justice. Then, Udal and his team can think about chasing riches which rise from £133,000 for just taking part up to £2m for winning the event.

"I see no reason why we can't perform very well," said the off-spinner. "We came good when it mattered in the summer and I'm backing our guys to do the same again.

"Hopefully, we will play a bit better than we did in Antigua, where we didn't adapt quickly enough to the conditions, but even then we had chances to beat both Trinidad and England."

Udal can be under no illusions, though, about the strength of the opposition in their group. Chennai can include Australian batsmen Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey as well as Sri Lanka's record-breaking bowler Muttiah Muralitharan.

Victoria also have three Australia internationals in Cameron White, David Hussey and Brad Hodge, while Pretoria can call on South Africa stars AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

But Middlesex are up for the fight. So much so the players have agreed to foot the bill for two extra days in Mumbai so they can be better prepared. "We want to give ourselves the best chance," said Udal.