Middlesex seem certain to take part in the first Champions League this October and play for a first prize of more than £2million. But the event remains closed to Twenty20 Cup runners-up Kent.

After days of brinkmanship and talk of rival tournaments, India say its Champions League competition will go ahead with two domestic teams from both Australia and South Africa joining a pair of Indian Premier League sides in the eight-club event.

Middlesex, who were crowned Twenty20 Cup kings last Saturday, are also invited and the England Cricket Board are unlikely to stand in their way despite concerns about the tournament. One of those is India's insistence that any team that have used players who have appeared in the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League cannot be included. That bars Kent because of the involvement this season of Justin Kemp and Azhar Mahmood.

Essex, beaten in the Twenty20 Cup semi-finals by Kent, are also 'clean' when it comes to ICL players. But there seems little chance of India accepting them as alternative entrants, with a side from either Pakistan or New Zealand more likely to fill the last space.