 Pietersen will be highly prized by many of the teams in the IPL |
English players in the Indian Premier League are said to be very unhappy at having to pay 10% of their share of their auction price to their counties. Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Luke Wright, Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara and Paul Collingwood will be in the auction in Goa on 6 February. The BBC's Jonathan Agnew said Pietersen may have to pay Hampshire �45,000. "Relations between the players and the England and Wales Cricket Board have rarely been as strained," he added. As the players' contracts are for three weeks, that means Pietersen and his colleagues could end up having to pay substantial sums of money to miss just one four-day match. "Apart from the size of the levy, England's players are particularly upset that they have no say in how the money will be used," added Agnew. But Angus Fraser, Middlesex's managing director of cricket, believes that his county need compensation for the pair of players they are set to lose to the tournament. "I think so, yes, certainly up at Middlesex we could be without Owais Shah and Tyron Henderson for basically six weeks, two months of the season," he said. "We've got to try and find someone to fill that gap and I suppose this amount only contributes slightly to that. "Because for Owais Shah, if he goes for his pre-stated amount of $150,000, we would get $15,000 from him, which is �10,000 approximately. You're not going to get a huge player for �10,000."  | 606: DEBATE |
Durham chairman Clive Leach insists that renegotiation would be needed before he gives up his county's share of England star Collingwood's IPL money. "As far as I'm concerned that's the contract, that's the way it is. We follow the rules. I'm happy if someone wants to sit around the table and talk about it again. But that's the way it stands at the moment," he said. At the start of the process there were four other England players in the running for the IPL. Ian Bell and Matt Prior withdrew from the process, whilst surprise veteran contenders Dominic Cork and Darren Gough failed to make the cut. England bowler Stuart Broad ruled himself out of the whole competition from the start in order to concentrate on the Ashes instead. Five Pakistanis were in the original list, but none will feature after their country's Foreign Office refused to grant them permission to travel to India. Pietersen has the highest base price in the auction at $1.35m dollars while Flintoff will not go for lower than $950,000. Australia vice-captain Michael Clarke has a minimum price of $1m while fellow Aussie Shaun Tait's price will be at least $250,000, South African batsman JP Duminy is also one of the highest valued players at $300,000. The IPL will run from 10 April to 29 May, although contracted England players are only permitted to go for three weeks. The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) wants to ensure its centrally contracted players, which include Pietersen, Flintoff and Collingwood, return in time for the Lord's Test against the West Indies on 6 May. | ENGLAND PLAYER'S BASE PRICES Kevin Pietersen - $1.35m Andrew Flintoff - $950,000 Paul Collingwood - $250,000 Luke Wright - $150,000 Owais Shah - $150,000 Ravi Bopara - $150,000 Samit Patel - $100,000 |
Hugh Morris, the managing director of the England team, said: "We've got a very important summer ahead of us with the World Twenty20 and the Ashes. Players will prepare in different ways for this summer." Morris is confident that those players who do take part in the IPL will find it a positive experience: "It's very much down to the players. It's their choice, the IPL is a fantastic opportunity. "With the Twenty20 World Championship happening in England at the beginning of the summer, it's nice to have the opportunity for some of our players to play Twenty20 cricket. "The players who go there are going to be playing with and against some of the best players in the world in what we see as a very high-profile, very important tournament."
Full list of IPL auction players, country by country (exchange rate as of 03/02/2009 is 1.4 dollars to the pound): AUSTRALIA: Aaron Bird ($45,000), Brett Geeves ($45,000), Bryce McGain ($50,000), Daniel Harris ($50,000), Dominic Thornley ($50,000), George Bailey ($50,000), Jonathan Moss ($50,000), Michael Clarke ($1,000,000), Michael Dighton ($85,000), Michael Hill ($50,000), Phil Jacques ($100,000), Shane Harwood ($75,000), Shaun Tait ($250,000), Steven Smith ($75,000), Stuart Clark ($250,000). BANGLADESH: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza ($50,000), Mohammad Ashraful ($75,000), Shakib Al Hasan ($75,000), Tamim Iqbal ($50,000). ENGLAND: Andrew Flintoff ($950,000), Kevin Pietersen ($1,350,000), Luke Wright ($150,000), Owais Shah ($150,000), Paul Collingwood ($250,000), Ravi Bopara ($150,000), Samit Patel ($100,000), NEW ZEALAND:James Franklin ($50,000), Jesse Ryder ($100,000), Kyle Mills ($150,000). SOUTH AFRICA: Gulam Bodi ($100,000), J P Duminy ($300,000), Morne Van Wyk ($100,000), Tyron Henderson ($100,000), Yusuf Abdullah ($25,000). SRI LANKA: Chamara Kapugadera ($150,000), Kaushalya Weereratne ($50,000), Nuwan Kulasekera ($100,000), Thilan Thushara ($100,000). WEST INDIES: Dwayne Smith (TBC), Fidel Edwards ($150,000), Jerome Taylor (TBC), Kemar Roach ($50,000), Kieron Pollard ($60,000)
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