Vital pair will miss Sussex bonanza

Sussex 172-7 Somerset 109

(PA)

Sussex celebrated winning the Twenty20 Cup for the first time nagged by the knowledge that neither of the men at the heart of Saturday's triumph may be able to play for them in the £3.6m Champions League.

Murray Goodwin, whose 67-ball unbeaten 80 was the cornerstone of their semi-final defeat of Northamptonshire, will not be eligible for the October tournament because of his previous links with the outlawed Indian Cricket League.

And West Indian Dwayne Smith, who smashed 59 off just 26 balls in a thrilling exhibition of hitting as Sussex won by seven wickets in the final, is expected to line up for Deccan Chargers, the Hyderabad side he helped qualify via the Indian Premier League.

"Dwayne Smith is our leading scorer and when you go to a competition like the Champions League, you want to have your top Twenty20 players with you," the Sussex captain, Michael Yardy, said. "I'm not 100 per cent sure what the situation is. – but it would be nice to have him in our camp."

The 26-year-old right-hand batsman from Barbados scored 338 runs in 13 Twenty20 innings for Sussex, averaging 33.30, but also hit 215 runs at 26.87 in eight innings for the Chargers, who paid $100,000 (£60,000) for his services at the IPL auction.

Sussex, beaten finalists in the Friends Provident Trophy last month, would have been disqualified as a team from the Champions League had Goodwin not cut his own ICL ties by the 31 May deadline set by the competition organisers. The Zimbabwe-born player will regain eligibility in 2010.

The tournament, which runs from 8 to 23 October, will feature Deccan Chargers, Bangalore Royal Chargers and Delhi Daredevils from the IPL, plus the Australian sides New South Wales and Victoria, South Africa's Eagles and Cape Cobras, Otago (New Zealand) and Trinidad and Tobago as well as Sussex and Saturday's runner-up from the Edgbaston final, Somerset.

Somerset have concerns for different reasons over Marcus Trescothick, who hit 56 against Kent in the semi-final and 33 off 15 balls in the final before being caught on the boundary.

Trescothick quit international cricket over stress-related problems linked to playing abroad. "He would be important to Somerset but only he can say if he will be able to travel," the Somerset captain, Justin Langer, said.