Sport

IPL: Players need to get NOC from boards

Melbourne: The Indian Premier League on Tuesday assured it will not contract international cricketers for two years after their retirement, aiming to allay concerns that players would cut short their careers to link with BCCI’s lucrative Twenty20 competition.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi said players would have to get a No-Objection Certificate from their respective boards before signing with the league.

The NOC would have a clause in which players agree to a two-year “cooling-off” period after their retirement from international cricket before they can join the IPL. “This will prevent players from retiring before their home boards want them to,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Modi as saying

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

“There is more money to reward players, who are the key constituents in the league, but there is no interest in harming other forms of the game,” Modi, who is also a vice-president of the BCCI, said. Modi claimed that as many as six Australian syndicates had expressed interest in buying one of the eight IPL franchises. Hollywood star Russell Crowe has been linked with the league, and Modi stated that “other prominent Australians and major industrialists” had also inquired about purchasing a franchise, which will cost upwards of $50 million. — PTI

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