Franchises can sign foreign recruits till final - IPL

The Indian Premier League has entered the final stretch of its first season, but franchises can continue to recruit foreign players right up to the final on June 1, a senior IPL official indicated.

However, these recruitments can only be made to fill vacancies created by foreign players who have either been ruled out due to injury or have left for national duty, and will be subject to the salary cap system already in place in the league.

"We do allow replacements for foreign players who are injured or who are away playing for their country, but the money that can be paid to these recruits cannot exceed what had been bid at the auction for the players they are replacing," IS Bindra, a member of the IPL's governing council, told Cricinfo.

Franchise officials clarified that the money paid to a replacement cannot exceed the balance remaining in the original player's contract amount after he'd been paid for the games played this season. "However, it has rarely come to that because most of the replacements are just happy to be part of the tournament and have come for much less," a franchise official said.

The IPL, which began on April 18, had fixed a cap of eight foreign players per franchise for the first auction in February, but subsequently stretched it to nine per squad to accommodate a few players who had signed up for the tournament but were not picked.

Since then, tournament has been a revolving door of sorts with new faces replacing original signings for various teams at various junctures long after the final team lists were distributed for publication on March 27.

"The joke doing the rounds is that this is probably why some of the captains seem to forget who is in his XI and who is out when he goes out for the toss," another franchise official said. "Players from countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who do not have any current national engagements, have benefited the most from the vacancies created by the departure of the Australians, West Indians and New Zealanders."

The Australian team is currently in the West Indies for a bilateral Test and one-day series and the New Zealanders are midway through their first Test against England at Lord's.

Chennai recently signed on Chamara Kapugedara, the Sri Lankan allrounder, after the departure of Mathew Hayden and Michael Hussey while Mumbai, who bought Lasith Malinga for US$ 350,000 at the auction, flew in Dwayne Bravo, the West Indian allrounder, after Malinga was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. With Bravo leaving to join his national team, Mumbai have roped in Andre Nel, the South African fast bowler, for the last leg of the tournament.

However, Bindra said he did not foresee the entry of heavyweight players like Kevin Pietersen at least for this edition of the tournament. "Obviously, a high-profile player like Pietersen can't be flown in as replacement considering the budget cap that is in place for replacements. There is also the New Zealand-England series going on. Pietersen can, of course, be part of fresh foreign recruitment from next year."