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.