Essex and Durham, the losing semi-finalists of the Twenty20 Finals Day, will be feeling 75 million times worse this morning if they believe reports about the ECB’s latest ten-year plan for their own Champions League.

The ECB has supposedly agreed a $750 million (about £376 million) deal with the Abu Dhabi royal family, who will finance a league over ten years. The tournament would be staged in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in September and the financial package dwarfs the £1 million for winning the Champions League, or the piffling £150,000 at stake for the Stanford Super Series. Middlesex, the winners of the Twenty20 Cup, made just £42,000 for winning the event yesterday, the same sum as five years ago.

But such sums will probably only magnify the scepticism of Rob Key, the Kent captain. Even after winning the semi-final that qualified teams for any Champions League this year, Key said that he would believe it when he sees it as far as the Champions League was concerned. “It changes every other day,” Key said. “Until I get some plane tickets thorough the door I couldn’t care.”

The Abu Dhabi plan appears to have started as a contingency against the ECB being excluded from Champions League because of some county players’ links with the rival ICL. But even if the Champions League issue is resolved amicably, given the size of the ECB’s proposed deal with Abu Dhabi, there might be a separate competition.

The way Lalit Modi, the chairman of the IPL, was talking yesterday, the ban on ICL players from the Champions League remains. That means Kent, Twenty20 runners-up, who employ Azhar Mahmood and Justin Kemp, would not be able to take part with Modi leaving no room for compromise. Middlesex, the Twenty20 champions, have no ICL players.

“We have everybody on board going forward, apart from the ECB, who have some reservations in terms of structure and ownership,” Modi said.

“We hope the ECB will be part of it, but if they are unreasonable or unable to adhere to the rules and regulations of the tournament then they will not be able to participate. We have a final meeting with our members in Bombay on Wednesday and hope to make an announcement then. We will go ahead, with or without the ECB.”

Inderjit Singh Bindra, the “principal adviser” to the chief executive of the ICC, a member of the governing council of the IPL and often referred to as the most powerful man in cricket, said that he does not think the Champions League will happen this year but added: “I feel the ideal place for a Champions League is England in September.”