Seven England Stars Make IPL Auction

Seven English players have been named in the Indian Premier League auction taking place later this week amid rumours that the cricketers are angry at the some of the contractual terms regarding their participation.

Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Luke Wright, Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara and Paul Collingwood will all be in the IPL auction taking place in Goa on 6th February.

England players missed out on participating in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament last year due to a fixture clash with the domestic county season although a deal has been reached this year to allow them to play for the first three weeks of the IPL.

However, there is thought to be ill feeling from the players regarding the deal signed between the IPL and the England and Wales Cricket Board which stipulates that the players must pay 10% of their auction fee to their counties as way of compensation for missing the start of the domestic season.

As the players’ contracts are for three weeks, that means the England stars could end up having to pay substantial sums of money to miss just one four-day match.

Pietersen has the highest base price in the auction at $1.35m while Flintoff will not go for lower than $950,000.

The remaining players to make the cut – Luke Wright ($150,000), Owais Shah ($150,000), Paul Collingwood ($250,000), Ravi Bopara ($150,000), Samit Patel ($100,000) – are set to earn substantially less than their two colleagues.

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.

The IPL will run from 10th April to 29th May, although contracted England players are only permitted to go for three weeks.

The ECB wants to ensure its centrally contracted players return in time for the Lord’s Test against the West Indies on 6th May.