Middlesex announced yesterday that they expect Owais Shah to be made available by England for the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League that begins with Middlesex against Victoria in Bombay on December 3. Only last month Middlesex were expressing anger that the ECB had said that the batsman would not be available. It is perhaps common sense, but the turnaround indicates the ECB's desire to show credibility for international Twenty20 tournaments.

There is even the possibility of Andrew Strauss being available but he seems certain to be picked for the first Test against India beginning on December 11 in Ahmedabad, the day after the Champions League final. England will probably require him for their only warm-up game, a three-day match in Baroda, which starts on December 5.

“The ECB have been absolutely fabulous, we are optimistic that they [Shah and Strauss] will be made available to us,” Vinny Codrington, the Middlesex chief executive, said. “It clearly depends on whether Owais gets in the first Test match squad. They [the ECB] are very keen as English representatives for us to do well in the tournament.”

The subtext of the ECB's keenness is its talks, however protracted, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the creator of the Champions League, about England and India player availability for their respective Twenty20 leagues.

Middlesex consider this competition as the main event of an extraordinary winter after their involvement in the Stanford Super Series last month, not least because the winners will receive $3 million (about £2.03 million). The participation fee is said to be more than £300,000.

They will start as outsiders in a group that includes Chennai Super Kings, the IPL runners-up, Victoria and Nashua Titans, the Australian and South African champions respectively.