Ten teams in IPL almost a certainty

The IPL governing council has all but cleared the participation of ten teams in the fourth edition of the league, which starts a week after the World Cup. There is only one precautionary measure the IPL will take before the player auction: to check if the players, who represented Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in the past editions, have received their dues from their respective franchises.

"It was decided that before the auction takes off it is necessary to check if the payments to the players [from the two franchises] have indeed been made because that was one of the three conditions set by the court," an IPL official told ESPNcricinfo. The reasoning behind that move was that the board did not want to find itself at the receiving end later, in case both Rajasthan and Punjab failed on their word given to the court.

On their part, the two franchises have confirmed they cleared all dues well before the deadline date, which is before the auction day on January 8. The two-day auction will be held in Bangalore over this weekend where 350 players will go under the hammer.

The clearance means the BCCI has decided to suspend its legal battles with both Rajasthan and Punjab, the two franchises it had terminated last year for alleged violations. It also rules out any move by the board to approach the Supreme Court to overturn the Bombay High Court's stay on the termination.