Calcutta: The founding member boards of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 on Thursday decided to reschedule the event from September-October to early December this year, in a gesture of goodwill towards the International Cricket Council (ICC).

According to a joint statement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA), and Cricket South Africa (CSA), the tournament will now be played from December 3-10.

The tournament was earlier scheduled to start a day after the completion of the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, but the ICC expressed its reservations over the fixture and requested the governing council to consider alternative dates for the league.

“While the Champions League Twenty20 is a domestic tournament not affected by ICC event rules, we have agreed to the ICC request as a gesture of goodwill,” the statement said.

Chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League and BCCI vice president Lalit Modi also expressed happiness and said December would be a good time to host the event as the two finalists of the IPL would be available at this time.

“We are happy that we were able to find a window during the first week of December for the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20,” he said.

“There was a gap in between the one-day Internationals and Tests against the touring England squad and that will enable both the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings to regroup and focus on the inaugural edition of the Champions League Twenty20,” he added.

To facilitate the change, CA, CSA and the West Australian Cricket Association have agreed to reschedule the Australia-South Africa Test to December 17 instead of December 12.

It creates a window between Australia-New Zealand Test at Adelaide and the new dates for the Perth Test, which will allow Australian and South African players to participate in the Champions League.

CA chief executive officer James Sutherland and CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said they had consulted players and players’ associations.