Thaindian News

Sydney, Apr 30 (ANI): Cricket Australia will have to rely on West Indies players for international star power, as the Indian cricket board has refused to allow its players to participate in the Big Bash.

Cricket Australia was not banking on access to Indian World Cup stars, but teams had hoped some limited-overs specialists would be granted permission by the BCCI to play in at least part of the reborn Twenty20 league, which runs from mid-December until late January.

Professor Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI’s chief administrative officer, said the board would not waver from its policy not to release players from Indian domestic cricket, which runs from October to March.

“In fact last year some teams wanted Indian players and they were not available because of [the] domestic tournament,” The Age quoted Shetty, as saying.

“It’s a policy decision of the board, the new coach has nothing to do with that, and when there is a domestic tournament on I don’t think we will release any players. Sri Lanka now has some league in the month of July and it doesn’t clash with our domestic tournament so whoever wants to go with prior permission can participate,” he said.

The latest fixtures suggest that England players will be available for the first half of the Big Bash while New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh players should be available for the second half.

With a modest salary cap of about $one million dollars, each team is expected to be allowed four international players with two playing at any given time. (ANI)