INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

The Indian Premier League today demonstrated that it will work towards safeguarding the development of global cricket by encouraging player commitment to their home boards, with regulations that reinforce national duty to ensure the integrity of the Future Tours Program (FTP). A communication to this effect was sent by Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, Indian Premier League to Board Presidents of Cricket Boards around the world last night outlining the IPL’s commitment with a regulation. According to the regulation, every IPL player that has been contracted by any board or its clubs, counties, provinces or state anywhere in world will henceforth be required to produce a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for a period of two years, with the rule being applicable to a player even if he retires. This rule also applies to players that are no longer contracted with their home boards. The IPL has further informed all the cricket boards, that if a cricketer does not play for his country in an approved FTP tournament, choosing instead to play for a franchise in the league – the IPL would not allow the player to participate.

The league further announced that it would not recognize any player contracts which were not as per the prescribed guidelines of the IPL. The Indian Premier League has taken this stance based on complaints received from multiple quarters about individual franchisees tweaking the terms of conditions of signing-up young and new players as per their convenience and were not part of the prescribed contract templates provided by the league. The league in a written communication to its franchisees has clearly outlined that only player contracts approved and circulated by the IPL, will be recognized and other contracts would be considered invalid.

The IPL has also advised its franchisees to refrain from using agents for hiring new players and instead encouraged its franchisees to deal with the cricketers directly, without any intermediaries. Reiterating the same, the IPL has said that the league will only recognize as valid, contracts signed directly between the players & franchisees. The rational for this decision again was based on the problems being faced by Cricketing Boards around the World, where some agents have been responsible for misguiding players and the franchisees, with detrimental effects on Global Cricket. This the IPL stated was against the fundamental vision and structure of the league, which was to enhance cricket and provide more opportunities, while not detracting in any manner from International Cricket. The Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League, has also asked players to direct their individual queries to him directly, if the cricketers need to seek clarifications on any issues.

Lastly, the Indian Premier League has also asked all franchises to re-register all player contracts related to the recruitment and contracting of young and new players. The IPL has set a deadline of August 25^th 2009 for all franchisees to disclose contracts signed - to date with all players whether it be the international stars auctioned, domestic players contracted, replacement and/or development cricketers recruited by the teams. The IPL will then update the player registry and publish a finalised list of registered players with the league on August 27^th 2009.