Sport – IPL asks overseas players to deal directly with it

Mumbai: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has asked all international overseas players wishing to take part in the auction scheduled on January 19 to deal directly with it by avoiding agents or managers for the purpose.

IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi has also set December 31 as the deadline for the players, who have represented their country in Test, ODIs or T20 Internationals, and are interested in taking part in the March-April edition of the Twenty20 event, to register themselves for the auction.

“They have been requested to register their interest directly with IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi and refrain from using agents or managers for the purpose. The number of overseas players that a franchise may have in its squad is capped at 10,” said IPL in a media release on Tuesday.

As per the procedure decided, an interested player who has represented his country in Tests, ODIs or T20 internationals, will have to send a personal e-mail directly to Modi at playerauction@iplt20.com and request that their names be placed on the “IPL Auction Register”.

The player should confirm he has received an NOC from his home cricket board to take part in the March 12-April 25 event and also specify whether he is available for the full 2010 season (from March 2 till April end), the release said.

Meanwhile, IPL Chairman Lalit Modi denied media reports that the Australian cricketers would have their contracts terminated and the teams would be barred from Champions Trophy if they prefer domestic cricket to next year’s IPL.

“Media reports appearing today, stating that the IPL is threatening to tear up and throw away contracts of overseas players are absolutely untrue and baseless,” Modi said in a statement. — PTI