ECB officials were engaged in diplomatic talks yesterday with other national boards as they tried to reach an agreement about the form and location of a Champions League Twenty20 tournament this autumn.

David Collier, the ECB chief executive, said last night that the board had received a firm and lucrative offer, believed to be from the Abu Dhabi royal family, to stage its own Champions League in the Middle East, distinct from the one mooted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). However, English involvement in India's Champions League, to be held in Jaipur, Mohali and Delhi from September 29 to October 8, is not yet off the agenda.

Officials from the Australian and South African cricket boards are scheduled to meet their Indian counterparts in Bombay tomorrow to discuss the league, which was to feature the top two teams from the Indian, English, Australian and South African domestic Twenty20 competitions. While the ECB had no plans to attend the meeting yesterday morning, Collier equivocated later in the day.

“We could go, it depends on how far we get with discussions this evening,” he said. “I have been speaking to the other boards for most of the day and I hope to have something to announce by the end of the week.”

Several weeks of discussions between the ECB and the BCCI have come to nothing, with the BCCI insisting that it should retain 50 per cent of the rights to the tournament and that teams who have used players with connections to the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL) should not be allowed to compete.

The ECB is said to want an equal share of the tournament between the boards and an amnesty for teams with ICL players this year. Kent, who qualified for the Champions League by reaching the final of the Twenty20 Cup, which they lost to Middlesex on Saturday, would be banned if India had their way because two of their players, Justin Kemp and Azhar Mahmood, have played for ICL teams.

Paul Millman, the Kent chief executive, is putting his faith in the ECB to negotiate a way out of the impasse. “The whole organisation of the Champions League is very much in the capable hands of David Collier and his team and we'll sit and wait until they talk to us,” he said.

“We're very keen to be involved, but we're aware there are discussions taking place as to the location and format. It's very, very exciting and we are happy to be considered part of it.”