By Oliver Brett

The ECB's Giles Clarke and India's Lalit Modi rarely see eye-to-eye

English counties remain hopeful the Champions League can be switched away from September to avoid a clash with the end of the domestic season.

Champions League chairman Lalit Modi is standing firm over the 10-26 September schedule, even though the last English domestic fixture is on 18 September.

Middlesex chief executive Vinny Codrington told BBC Sport: "These things can change quite quickly.

"Dates get moved around. I'm not pressing the panic button yet."

However, England and Wales Cricket Board [ECB] chairman Giles Clarke faces a tough battle to get the dates moved, though he will seek a meeting with Modi before the ongoing International Cricket Council board meeting concludes in Dubai.

Clarke and Modi have a strained relationship and one insider told BBC Sport they dislike being in the same room together. But Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes urged both sides to bury the hatchet.

Asked if there was real animosity between the ECB and Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] Cumbes told BBC Sport: "It appears to be going that way which is a shame I suppose. Both sides should be trying to patch that up.

"It's one of those things where they need us but we need them and there has to be some compromise somewhere along the line."

Modi is arguably the most powerful administrator in cricket, juggling additional roles as chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League [IPL], and vice-president of the BCCI.

We have to protect the integrity of the County Championship and our main focus has to be on that. The Championship is sacrosanct Middlesex's Vinny Codrington

The dates for the Champions League, to be held in India, clash with the final stages of the County Championship, the new ECB 40 League, and a five-match series of one-day internationals between England and Pakistan.

Clarke and the English counties had expected the second season of the Champions League to take place at the start of October and the domestic calendar was scheduled to finish nine days earlier than in 2009 to allow counties to prepare accordingly.

But India have now scheduled a one-day series against Australia to begin on 2 October, and on Thursday Modi called for the ECB to make some "minor adjustments" to the county calendar.

The ECB says there is no scope to do so, and will attempt to garner support from Cricket Australia [CA] and Cricket South Africa [CSA] to help it get the dates altered. But it has a weak bargaining position, not only due to the Clarke-Modi personality clash.

It failed to negotiate a seat on the governing council of the Champions League - run by the BCCI, CA and CSA - at a time when it was seduced by the lure of Allen Stanford's ill-fated Twenty20 operation in Antigua.

The ECB has also clashed frequently with Modi over the dates of the IPL, which tends to overlap with England's international fixtures, while other national boards have cleared a window in March and April to allow its top stars to play a full part in the IPL.

Cumbes, who also sits on the executive committee of the ECB, refuted suggestions from Modi that the ECB had been warned that the tournament might have an early start, calling it a "bolt out of the blue", though he did admit "our system is cluttered to death with fixtures".

606: DEBATE Yeah, rearrange what is probably the oldest domestic competition for the circus. Brings bile to my throat Jonlah

In view of the prize money offered for winning the Champions League (£1.6m), the temptation for a county to send out second XI and club players for the back end of the domestic County Championship while putting the top players on the plane to India will be there.

But Cumbes said: "It wouldn't be any good for cricket and wouldn't give Lalit Modi any satisfaction."

In any case, ECB chief executive David Collier has already warned the counties in an e-mail of their duty to comply fully with the domestic fixture list.

And Codrington told BBC Sport: "We have to protect the integrity of the County Championship and our main focus has to be on that. The Championship is sacrosanct."

Codrington's Middlesex qualified for the inaugural Champions League after winning the 2006 Twenty20 Cup, but the tournament was abandoned following the Mumbai terror attacks.

They are assembling a powerful-looking Twenty20 squad next summer, with Australian great Adam Gilchrist signed up amid hopes that Makhaya Ntini and Yuvraj Singh will also join.

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