Rajasthan Royals captain-coach Shane Warne is set to unleash all of his tricks against his old team Victoria in the inaugural $US5 million ($A5.22 million) Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
The 10-day competition - originally mooted to be held earlier this year - is set to be played in late September and early October in either India or the United Arab Emirates.
Following the immense success of the Indian Premier League, Cricket Australia is confident the new competition will be a hit.
Australia will be represented by Victoria and Western Australia against the best two sides from the domestic competitions of South Africa, England and India in the cash-rich tournament.
"Obviously each of those four countries have a domestic Twenty20 competition each year, and we'd like to think the winners of each of those competitions can play off on an annual basis," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said in Melbourne today.
That includes the Jaipur-based Royals - who Warne recently led to the IPL crown with a dramatic last-ball victory over the Chennai Super Kings.
"There's no doubt with Rajasthan winning the IPL he'd be very much looking forward to being on the big stage now, and taking on the Vics," Sutherland said.
But Australia's front line players aren't expected to be available for the Champions League as it clashes with the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and subsequent Test tour of India.
Matthew Hayden and Western Australian Mike Hussey are both contracted to Chennai but were expected to be busy carrying out international commitments.
"I think leading into the Test series which starts in the first week of October, I think it is unlikely any of our Test players are able to play," said Sutherland.
The CA boss hinted that IPL teams could be the winners of any tug of war battle for players who have allegiances to both a state team and an IPL side.
"There's probably a high likelihood where an IPL team wants those players, they'll be cleared to play for those IPL teams," he said.
"We'll need to work out what the terms and conditions are on that release."
Sutherland believed the interest from the IPL will spill over to the Australian domestic Twenty20 competition with franchises one option down the track as well as teams from New Zealand.
"To be honest there's a lot of things happening, a lot of different things happening in world cricket associated with Twenty20," he said.
"Just having spent a few days in India for the finals of the IPL there are some things which are interesting and relevant which we need to take on board as we plan for some sort of revamped Twenty20 competition for 2009-2010."
