From correspondents in New York, United States, 08:03 PM IST

ESPN Star Sports has paid $975 million for exclusive commercial rights for the Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament for 10 years.

The deal gives the broadcaster the television, title-sponsorship, mobile phone and Internet rights for the eight-team tournament, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

ESPN Star Sports, a joint venture between Walt Disney's ESPN and News Corp's Star, beat out the Abu Dhabi Sports Club and the Dubai Investment Council for the rights to the tournament, which will be held for the first time in December.

The Twenty20 format, in which games last about three hours, compared with five days for traditional Tests and one dayers, met with roaring success when introduced in India earlier this year by the Indian Premier League (IPL).

IPL champions Rajasthan Royals and runners-up Chennai Super Kings will represent India at the Champions League.

The other teams will be drawn from Australia, South Africa, Pakistan and England. The total prize money on offer is $6 million and games will be broadcast globally.

'This novel concept of the top Twenty20 teams from the premier cricketing nations playing off against each other will surely take the game to another level altogether,' WSJ quoted R.C. Venkateish, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, as saying.

The tournament will be contested by 12 teams from next year.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa (CSA) are founding members of the Champions League.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)