New Delhi, July 15 (IANS): The Governing Council of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) on Wednesday confirmed that the competition will be discontinued with immediate effect.

The council, comprising representatives of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA) made the decision unanimously. As such, the 2015 edition scheduled for September and October will not go ahead as planned.

The competition was launched in 2009 by the three boards. The council determined that the discontinuation of the league was the most appropriate decision due to the tournament's limited public following.

"This has been a difficult decision as the CLT20 provided added context to a number of domestic T20 competitions around the world such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) in India, Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia and South Africa's Ram Slam T20," BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said.

"It was a fantastic platform for players from around the world to showcase their talent and the participating teams thoroughly enjoyed the experience over the last six seasons. Unfortunately, off the field, CLT20 wasn't sustaining the interest of the fans as we had hoped. This decision was made, after consultation with all our commercial partners and meeting the contractual obligations of all parties involved."

Thakur added: "The Governing Council would like to thank everyone involved with the CLT20 and all those who participated in the tournament. Further details associated with winding down the league including settling with the three nations that had invested time and effort in the competition, will be completed very soon."