PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad & Tobago’s cricket authorities are moving full steam ahead with preparations for the Twenty20 Champions League in India after the country’s participation in the October tournament was officially confirmed earlier this week. Forbes Persaud, general secretary of the cricket board here, told CMC Sports Friday that the organisers of the tournament had verified T&T’s involvement in London recently and plans would now be put in place to have the national team ready for the inaugural tournament. “President of the TTCB (local board), Deryck Murray recently visited England and after not hearing any official word, he took it upon himself to go to the offices of the chairman of the Champions League, Lalit Modi and it was there that he got the official confirmation that T&T was included in the tournament,” Persaud explained. “With this knowledge, we now have to put measures in place for our team, so that they can have the best possible preparation for this tournament. This is the highest level that a Trinidad and Tobago team can compete at and we want to give them all the support to make a good effort at the tournament.”

Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the October 8-23 tournament on the basis of winning the last Stanford Twenty20 tournament which was played in 2008.  They will come up against India’s Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, Western Australia and Victoria, the Titans and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins from South Africa, Middlesex, and the champion team from the domestic Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka.The winners of the Champions League will walk away with $30 million (US$4.7 million). The appearance fee is $1 million.