It seemed ironic that on the day when county cricket cashed in on the Twenty20 revolution, two of the semi-finalists - Middlesex and Durham - should be sponsored by Northern Rock.

But this was not a day to be talking about the credit crunch as a packed house at a sun-drenched Rose Bowl watched Kent and Middlesex take a step towards undreamed-of riches for workaday county professionals.

These two counties are heading for the lucrative Champions League at the end of the season. Friday’s announcement by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says it is likely to be played in Dubai or Sharjah after a 10-year, £750m deal was done with Middle Eastern investors. The winners were also booked in for a clash with Trinidad & Tobago as part of the Allen Stanford jamboree later in the year.

Rob Key, who captained Kent to the final for the second successive year, tried, in his endearingly deadpan way, to play down the money issues. “We’re not too bothered, to be honest,” he said, prompting incredulous titters. “Until I actually get some plane tickets through the door, until I actually see all that money, I’m not worrying about it. The situation seems to change every other day. Nobody’s ordering Ferraris just yet. These added extras are just bonuses. This is county cricket’s big day and it’s a fantastic experience just to be playing in it.”

Key was the man who dismissed Graham Napier, Essex’s dangerman and Twenty20 man of the moment, with a superb over-the-shoulder catch running back at mid-off for three. “Napes is the guy you dread hitting the ball to you,” Key said. “He can really hurt you if you drop him, as he’s shown. It’s tough on him because he had so much build-up and so much focus on him.”

Ed Joyce, Middlesex’s acting captain in the absence of the injured Ed Smith, echoed Key’s sense of confusion about the next step for the Twenty20 Cup’s triumphant teams. “We don’t really know what’s going on,” he said. “We just said to ourselves, ‘Let’s enjoy the day’. It was just great to make it through to the final.”

For Kent chief executive Paul Millman, the cricket remains the priority, even though smaller counties such as his are always on the lookout for extra funds. The credit crunch has hit so hard that ambitious redevelopment plans at Kent’s Canterbury headquarters have had to be put on hold. “It’s a battle,” he said. “It’s been tough, but we’re keen to plough on.”

However, Millman indicated that money derived from on-field success would be ploughed back into the cricket side of the business. “Our priority is the cricket - for the good of cricket in Kent at all levels. Success on the field is a boost to all of that.”

Of the Champions League and Stanford match possibilities, Millman added: “It’s all very exciting, but there are lots of loose ends to be tied up and that’s what [the ECB’s] David Collier and Giles Clarke are doing. It’s great that our invention [Twenty20] has taken the game to such a new platform.”

Kent face Essex again in the final of the Friends Provident Trophy at Lord’s in three weeks. There was a time when that competition was the premier limited-overs competition for county players, the FA Cup of cricket. But the world has moved on. Twenty-four years ago, Kent lost a last-ball thriller to Middlesex in the NatWest final, as it then was. The prize-money for the winners was a princely £14,000. That sort of money doesn’t go far in Dubai these days.

Twenty20’s pot of gold

Twenty20 Cup winners can earn lucrative spin-offs. If they can win the Champions League in the Middle East and beat Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean they could collect £3.59m - three times their annual handout from the ECB

THE STANFORD SUPER SERIES

The Twenty20 Cup winners qualify for a £205,000 showdown with Trinidad and Tobago. The match is in Antigua on October 27

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

An eight-team event will feature domestic Twenty20 cups finalists from England, Australia and South Africa plus either India or Pakistan playing for £5.13m

- John Stern is editor of The Wisden Cricketer