Aussies eyeing IPL action before Windies:

Australia’s leading cricketers are likely to be granted a fortnight of paydirt in the Indian Premier League (IPL) before they tour the Caribbean.

Cricket Australia (CA) is yet to announce what sort of role the likes of Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee will have in the inaugural IPL season before the world champion team leaves for the West Indies in May.

But it is likely CA will next week grant its players permission to play in the lucrative Indian league for two weeks before having them return home to take part in a training camp before departing for the Caribbean on May 9.

Thirteen Australian players are set to take part in the IPL, which starts April 18, along with former players Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist.

A CA spokesman said cricket operations general manager Michael Brown and national coach Tim Nielsen were likely to discuss over the Easter break exactly when the players were needed in pre-tour camp.

Australia’s best players are contractually obliged to put international commitments ahead of IPL duties, which means Nielsen will have his best players all available, barring injury.

However the West Indies face the potential worry of having several of their stars missing from the first two Tests against Australia because of IPL involvement.

Batsmen Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan have all signed to play in the IPL and could be missing from their national side if their respective franchises reach the finals of the Twenty20 competition.

The West Indies Cricket Board can prevent the trio departing by refusing to issue no-objection certificates, but board chief executive Donald Peters has already stated he will not take that path for the fears the players would go anyway, for money.

While Australia’s players must put national commitments first, the same rule does not apply to other less financially-secure nations.

“We believe Test cricket should be about the best versus the best, but we can’t comment on behalf of other boards,” the CA spokesman said.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket is also yet to determine whether it will permit some of its best players to miss several warm-up matches on its tour of England because of IPL commitments.

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