Players signing up with Indian Premier League (IPL) will have agree to a two-year waiting period between retiring from international cricket and joining the league, chairman Lalit Modi has said. Interested players will have to get No-Objection Certificates (NOC) from their country’s board.

Modi said the league did not wish to harm the other forms of the game. “This [NOC] will prevent players from retiring before their home boards want them to,” Modi told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Players will have to think twice if they are considering an early retirement to join us. The IPL has no interest in jeopardising international cricket or home boards. The keys are in the hands of the board.”

Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, had earlier said any move by national boards to stop such retirements, or to ban players who join Twenty20 leagues, could be a restraint of trade and might result in court action.

Shane Warne will be the Indian Premier League’s most expensive signing, at a cost of US$400,000 for the first season, set to kick off in April 2008. The finance committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India met in Mumbai on Friday and approved several decisions taken by the IPL’s governing council regarding payment of its players.

The fee quoted for Warne is the signing amount for him to be part of the player pool from which franchises will bid for the rights to employ players within their ranks. With Brian Lara reportedly being paid US$1 million to appear in the Indian Cricket League, and the market heating up over the two rival leagues, Warne and similar big-ticket signings could rope in well in excess of US$1 million, sources revealed.

The second-highest signing-on fee has, not surprisingly, been paid to Glenn McGrath, whose nifty line-and-length bowling see him join up for US$350,000. Stephen Fleming, whose agents flirted with the ICL but in the end held back – to the extent that Fleming was one of those present at the IPL’s launch – also nets US$350,000.

Mohammad Yousuf, who had reportedly signed with the ICL before being lured away by the Pakistan board – which made no effort to stop Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq or Imran Farhat from joining the unrecognised league – has signed up with the IPL for US$330,000. A surprise entrant in the top five – and at the moment the list does not include current Australian or Indian cricketers – is Shoaib Malik, who is guaranteed US$300,000.

The ICL, which is nearing the end of its inaugural edition, will hand out approximately Rs 18 crore [approx. US$4.5 million] in total prize-money for its 16-day tournament.

The fees have been decided for only 34 of the 49 cricketers signed up by the IPL, sources said, and, of these, only 11 have received [partial] advance payments. The only player to receive payment in full is Yousuf, not surprising given that he was once a dead certainty to join the ICL. It is understood that McGrath is among those who have been given a sizeable advance.

The 29 others who have received contracts:

[All amounts in US$]
Australia Justin Langer 175,000
Sri Lanka Farveez Maharoof: 150,000, Kumar Sangakkara: 250,000, Mahela Jaywardene: 250,000, Muttiah Muralitharan: 250,000, Sanath Jayasuriya: 250,000, Nuwan Zoysa: 100,000, Dilhara Fernando: 150,000, Chaminda Vaas: 175,000, Lasith Malinga: 200,000
Pakistan Mohammad Asif 225,000, Shahid Afridi: 225,000, Shoaib Akhtar: 225,000, Younus Khan: 225,000
West Indies Shivnarine Chanderpaul 175,000
New Zealand Daniel Vettori 225,000, Jacob Oram 200,000, Scott Styris 150,000, Brendon McCullum 175,000
South Africa Loots Bosman 150,000, AB de Villiers 175,000, Albie Morkel 200,000, Graeme Smith 225,000, Herschelle Gibbs 225,000, Shaun Pollock 200,000, Ashwell Prince 150,000, Makhaya Ntini 175,000, Mark Boucher 175,000, Jacques Kallis 200,000.

HOBART: Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist says Australia’s cricketers are not trying to be “rebels” and will heed the company line when it comes to playing in the Indian Premier League.

The vice-captain said on Sunday that he was one of about a dozen top-level players to receive a letter from Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, warning them against playing in next year’s IPL Twenty20 tournament without Cricket Australia’s consent. Cricket Australia has told 11 of its top players, including captain Ricky Ponting,

Brett Lee and Gilchrist that they would not be granted permission to play in the ICC-sanctioned Indian Premier League’s Twenty20 tournament.

James Sutherland claimed the players signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to play in the tournament in April and May without consulting the Board. “A number of significant issues remain unresolved, particularly regarding Australian players’ participation in the proposed events and the terms of participation,” Sutherland said. Australia’s top players could earn up to $1 million for just a few weeks’ work with the IPL.

This is on top of their Cricket Australia contracts, which are worth a minimum $1,40,000. — Agencies

INDIA’S Twenty20 supremo has guaranteed the cashed-up Indian Premier League will not attempt to lure international players away from their national teams, allaying concerns of a Packer-style split developing within the game.

Lalit Modi’s comments come in response to a strongly-worded letter from Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, addressed to senior Australian players who have signed contracts with the BCCI-backed IPL.

In the letter, published in The Sun-Herald yesterday, Sutherland forbade CA-contracted players from linking with the IPL until “various terms and conditions” were resolved, prompting fears of an exodus of disgruntled cricketers to the lucrative Indian Twenty20 League.

But Modi, head of the IPL and vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, moved to defuse the controversy yesterday, confirming the IPL was not seeking to undermine foreign boards, or the sanctity of Test and limited-overs cricket.

“The national teams come first,” Modi told the Herald from India last night.

“We will only choose players if they are free from international commitments. There is no conflict. The national teams come first.”

Modi’s sentiments were yesterday echoed by Sutherland, Australian Cricketers’ Association chief Paul Marsh and Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, all of whom insisted players would be available for the IPL only during breaks in the Australian team’s schedule.

The Herald understands the 11 Australian players to have signed short-form Memoranda of Understanding with the IPL – including Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee – were placed under significant time pressure to do so. With a limited number of contracts on offer, the BCCI offered to pay leading players 25 per cent of their contract value up-front if they signed by a deadline.

But by agreeing to the short-form MOU, the 11 players did not commit their services to a competition that, in its inaugural year, will directly conflict with Australia’s Test tour of Pakistan. In fact, Australia’s core players are unlikely to turn out in the IPL for the next two seasons, due to pre-existing commitments with the Test and one-day teams. That being the case, the players will likely receive only the initial 25 per cent “sign on” portion of the contract.

“The workload and the timing of when the Indian Premier League is on … it might be that Australian players are only able to play one of the next three years,” Sutherland said yesterday. “In terms of choosing to play in the IPL instead of fulfilling their [CA] commitments, it’s just not going to happen. There’s no indication that players are looking to put the IPL ahead of the pride of wearing their Australian colours.”

As it stands, contracted players will be placed in a national draft, and can be chosen by any of India’s eight IPL franchises, who will compete for $US3 million ($3.4 million) in prizemoney and the chance to advance to the Twenty20 Champions’ League, involving provincial sides from Australia, England and South Africa.

IPL contracts are understood to be worth up to $1 million for top players.

“In many ways, it’s like county cricket,” said Marsh, who met players before the Hobart Test to discuss the IPL. “Players are able to play in England during breaks in the CA schedule and only with the board’s approval. It’s not a choice between your country and the IPL, and certainly nothing like World Series Cricket.”

Gilchrist concurred, adding that players would not participate in the IPL without CA’s approval.

“I think it’s pretty dramatic to draw comparisons between the Twenty20 revolution and World Series Cricket all those years ago,” he told AAP. “World Series Cricket was quite dramatic, and there was a lot of bad blood around at that time, from what I’ve learnt, but it’s far from that at the moment.

“No one will play [in the IPL] without consent. We’re not trying to be rebels here. It’s a new opportunity for cricketers and it’s a very exciting one that I know Cricket Australia are endorsing and encouraging.”

The IPL is not without its issues, however. The one-and-a-half page short-form MOU issued by the IPL was described by Marsh as “lacking in a lot of detail,” and the long-form documents have yet to be received.

Other potential areas of conflict could arise in regards to the rights of players in the IPL draft, as well as conflicts between IPL sponsors and those of national boards. The IPL is also competing with the rebel Indian Cricket League, which started last week.