Australian stars sign with IPL

Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden are among an extensive list of Australia's frontline players who have signed with the Indian Premier League, according to a report in the Sunday Age. The paper said the BCCI had outlaid more than $2 million to secure the stars for the Twenty20 tournament.

Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson were also reportedly on the list. The IPL has already attracted Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, with Simon Katich and Jason Gillespie also set to play.

The paper reported that Neil Maxwell, a player agent, will hand the groups's IPL contracts to Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, in Dubai on Sunday. Next year's tournament is likely to take place in April, meaning several of the Australian-contracted players might be unavailable as the team will tour Pakistan and West Indies around that time.

Australia's states also have questions over who an Australian player would represent if their Indian franchise and their home state both reached the Champions League following the IPL. "We're still very much at the thrashing-out stage, but I've been led to believe that if that happens, someone like Brett Lee's first commitment would be to his home state," Dave Gilbert, the chief executive of Cricket New South Wales said.

"These sorts of things must be spelt out at the start, so there can't be any grey areas. It would be good to get this worked out as soon as possible."