Mumbai allowed to field five overseas players

Mumbai Indians have been permitted to field five overseas players in a team during their Champions League Twenty20 games because several of their Indian players have suffered tournament-ending injuries. However, all the overseas players must have been contracted by them to play in the 2011 IPL. Mumbai are without six of their first-choice players, including the captain Sachin Tendulkar, and their reinforced squad contains seven Indians and seven foreign players.

The other IPL teams will be permitted to field only four overseas players in their XIs during the CLT20.

Apart from Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ali Murtaza, Dhawal Kulkarni and Suryakumar Yadav were ruled out of the tournament. They were replaced by Andrew Symonds, Dilhara Fernando, R Sathish, Sarul Kanwar and Abu Nechim. Moises Henriques is contracted to Mumbai, but cannot be considered for selection since he is a part of the New South Wales squad for the tournament. Tendulkar (injured toe), Rohit (broken finger) and Munaf (twisted ankle) were injured during India's recent tour of England.

In the absence of regular captain Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh will lead the team.

The CLT20 technical committee said, in addition to those six players, it had also received medical reports that ruled out two more Mumbai players - Aditya Tare and Pawan Suyal - from the tournament. Therefore, in all, a total of eight out of Mumbai's 23 contracted players were unavailable for selection.

"In the current circumstances, if the Mumbai Indians suffer one more injury to an Indian player, they will be unable to field a team due to CLT20 rules restricting teams to a maximum of four overseas players in any one match," the tournament organisers said in a media release. "As a result, the CLT20 governing council has approved a recommendation by the technical committee that to ensure the integrity of the tournament the Mumbai Indians will be permitted to select up to five overseas players in any one team, provided those players were contracted to play in the 2011 IPL.

"This was considered the most appropriate solution to respect player safety and ensure no player plays for a CLT20 team unless he played for, or was contracted to play for, that team in the qualifying event."

"Subject to approval, the ruling of the Governing Council and Technical Committee is applicable to any other team that, like the Mumbai Indians, suffers tournament-ending injuries in significant numbers that compromises its participation in the event.

"The current Mumbai Indians squad consists of 14 players, however they may add another player to their squad from their remaining injury-free contract list if they choose."

The CLT20 governing council comprises BCCI president N Srinivasan, former IPL chairman Chirayu Amin, BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah, Cricket South Africa chief Gerald Majola, Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland and a CA official Dean Kino.

Mumbai squad: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Lasith Malinga (overseas), Andrew Symonds (overseas), James Franklin (overseas), Aiden Blizzard (overseas), Davy Jacobs (overseas), Kieron Pollard (overseas), Dilhara Fernado (overseas), R Satish, Ambati Rayudu, T Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sarul Kanwar, Abu Nechim.