Australia to allow players to participate in SLPL

PTI: Unlike BCCI’s opposition to the Indian players participation in the Sri Lankan Premier League, Cricket Australia is likely to allow its players to feature in the inaugural Twenty20 league, starting next month.

The BCCI had refused to grant No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to the Indian players, saying that SLPL is not a tournament to be organised by SLC but by a private party based in Singapore on its behalf.

But CA acting chief executive Michael Brown said he would discuss the details of the tournament, which is to be held from July 19 to August 4, with Sri Lanka Cricket officials at the ICC’s annual conference in Hong Kong next week. He, however, indicated it had CA’s “in principle” support.

“We’ve got a number of CA camps during July, so our CA (centrally contracted) players will be training in preparation for the tour (of Sri Lanka) two days after the SLPL finishes — they’ll be locked into camps,” Brown was quoted as saying in ‘The Age’

“For the other guys, we just need to find out what the comp is, who’s involved. We want to support Sri Lanka Cricket, like we want them to support us. We want their players to play in our Big Bash,” he added.  The SLPL will be played in Colombo and feature seven teams, each with up to five international players.

Some state players like Victoria’s Brad Hodge and Dirk Nannes and South Australia’s Aiden Blizzard and Daniel Christian have already confirmed their participation.