MUMBAI: The fifth edition of Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) will be held in India from 17 September to 6 October. The international T20 tournament, which was held in South Africa last year, will return to India for the third time in five years.

This year, the tournament will once again feature a Pakistan team in the qualifier stage. The English teams, though, will give the tournament a miss as the England Cricket Board (ECB) has expressed that its teams won‘t be able to participate in this year‘s tournament.

West Indian team Trinidad & Tobago, who were the runners-up in the inaugural edition of the tournament, have earned a direct entry into the group stage this year after playing in the qualifier in 2011 and 2012.

The format of the tournament will be the same as in two previous editions with a group stage preceded by a qualifier. A total of 29 matches will be played in the tournament.

"The CLT20 will return to India this year. It will be the third time India will host the tournament in five years, after 2009 and 2011. The competition, which will again feature leading cricketers from across the world and some of the established legends of world cricket, will be watched and followed by equally passionate fans," says CLT20 Governing Council chairman N. Srinivasan.

The Qualifier will feature four teams - the fourth-ranked team from the IPL 2013, Otago Volts (New Zealand‘s HRV Cup champions), and the winners of the Sri Lanka and Pakistan domestic T20 competitions.

The teams will play each other once, with the top two advancing to the group stage. The group stage will feature 10 teams.

The top team from Group A will play the second-ranked team from Group B, and vice versa, in the semi-finals. The winners of the semis will play in the CLT20 2013 Final on 6 October. The venues of the CLT20 2013 will be decided at the end of the Pepsi IPL 2013, once the top three teams in that tournament are known.

Group A will comprise the winner and third-ranked team in the IPL 2013, Highveld Lions (winner of South Africa‘s RAM SLAM T20 Challenge), Perth Scorchers (KFC T20 Big Bash League runner-up), and the top team from the CLT20 2013 Qualifier.

Group B will comprise Brisbane Heat (KFC T20 Big Bash League champion), Trinidad & Tobago (West Indies T20 champion), the runner-up in the Pepsi IPL 2013, Titans (RAM SLAM T20 Challenge runner-up), and the second-ranked team from the CLT20 2013 Qualifier.