MUMBAI: By the looks of things, the BCCI will have a a more than respectable complement of foreign players when the Indian Premier League resumes in the UAE on 19th September.
As already reported, the Indian cricket board has been in talks with foreign boards to ensure their players’ participation in world cricket’s biggest annual tournament. As per an industry source, the England & Wales Cricket Board has reached an understanding with the BCCI to postpone England’s tour of Bangladesh, which was to run from 30th September to 22nd October, and involved 3 ODIs and 3 T20s. If it had gone ahead, the series would have directly clashed with the IPL remainder, which is scheduled to be held between 19th September and 15th October in the UAE and Oman.
It bears noting that the ECB had previously declared that its players would have to make themselves available for bilateral cricket.
Earlier, the BCCI had ensured the participation of West Indian players in the remainder of the IPL after the organisers of the Caribbean Premier League revised their schedule to avoid a clash of dates with the IPL.
And on Sunday, the New Zealand Cricket chief David White confirmed the participation of the their players despite their white-ball series against Pakistan during the same September-October window.
“We are much relieved now. BCCI are in talks with English and Australian boards to come to a consensus regarding this. Given April and May are earmarked for the IPL, they are right to raise their own objections, but we are now confirmed to witness New Zealand players in action,” a franchise official had told Cricket.com.
Meanwhile, Cricbuzz reports there is concern among the IPL teams if the South Africans will be available for the tournament from the beginning. The Proteas are to tour Sri Lanka in September for three ODIs and three T20Is. The series ends on September 12 and the IPL teams are not sure if the UAE government will allow a bubble-to-bubble transfer from Sri Lanka.
