Has the IPL's stance on player availability changed?

Cricinfo is running an article about the forthcoming IPL meat market, there's 100 OS players who have put their names down to join the circus.

The list sets a "preliminary expected availability" date against each player's name and, intriguingly, those from Australia and South Africa have been marked as free from the conclusion of their domestic competitions - the Sheffield Shield, in the case of Australian players, and the Standard Bank Pro20 series for South Africans. This suggests that the league has shifted from its earlier stated position, that players would have to put the IPL above their domestic tournaments and be available for the entire season.

And here's the players who are willing to sell their souls this time around...

Pakistan: Mohammed Aamer, Shahid Afridi, Shahzad Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Faisal Iqbal, Asim Kamal, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Khalil, Abdur Rauf, Khalid Latif, Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib Malik, Khurram Manzoor, Saqlain Mushtaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami.

Sri Lanka: Malinga Bandara, Indika de Saram, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Thilina Kandamby, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suranga Lakmal, Jehan Mubarak, Thisara Perera, Dammika Prasad, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Gihan Rupasinghe, Upul Tharanga, Kaushalya Weeraratne, ChanakaWelegedara.

South Africa: Yusuf Abdulla, Nicky Boje, Zander de Bruyn, Tyron Henderson, Justin Kemp, Rory Kleinveldt, Andre Nel, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Johan van der Wath, CJ de Villiers.

New Zealand: Shane Bond, Ian Butler, Chris Cairns, Brendon Diamanti, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Nathan McCullum, Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent.

West Indies: Carlton Baugh, Tino Best, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons.

Australia: Brad Haddin, Phillip Hughes, Ashley Noffke, Jason Krejza, Ben Laughlin, Graham Manou, Damien Martyn, Clint McKay, Adam Voges.

England: Tim Bresnan, Anthony McGrath, Eoin Morgan, Monty Panesar, Adil Rashid, Jonathan Trott Usman Afzaal, James Foster.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan, Shahriar Nafees.

Canada: Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan.

Zimbabwe: Murray Goodwin, Ray Price.

Ireland: Niall O'Brien

Netherlands: Ryan ten Doeschate

Note the small number of first choice players from major Test playing nations (apart from India, where it's being held) making themselves available.

That's because a lot of them sold their souls for the first or second versions on the IPL, and are still contracted.

Oh really? So they're already bought, is that how it works?

I wouldn't be hanging round the telephone for too long these next few weeks if I were Tino Best.

So, are some of the players like KP and co no longer partaking in this circus?


If so, great news.

Damien Martyn? What's he been up to?

Attention all ADD-afflicted members of the forum: (Yes, I'm looking in your general direction, Smerk.)

Players who have previously played in the IPL ALREADY HAVE CONTRACTS. THEY DON'T NEED TO BE BID ON EACH YEAR.

Got it?

Think before you post.

Ah, most IPL related matter goes over my head.

IPL needs to set out and find new talent. That would be great to popularize cricket. It seems to me that the 'talent spotters' are still lying dormant.

DJ_Smerk wrote:Ah, most IPL related matter goes over my head.

Surely you watch it religiously like everyone else outside India?

It has a decent audience even outside India, no point in being jealous about it.

Negligible in England. Don't really care about anywhere else.

why do you think IPL cares ?

Irrelevant to the point at hand.