Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Cricket South Africa ordered its national players to return home, to participate in final stages of the Standard Bank Pro20 semi-finals and final, next weekend. Unluckily, it’s the weekend when the IPL will be officially launched.

South African domestic competition is also high on their set of priorities - obligations to sponsors, who have poured millions into the competition over the years, and SuperSport, the country’s biggest cable network, has paid millions to televise the series. They do not want the final stages of their competition diluted, nor do they care whether IPL will pay millions of dollars to players to miss their domestic competition.

Even though the Cape Cobras initially gave their top players — Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Ashwell Prince — permission to remain in India after the third and final Future Test, beginning in Kanpur today, Cricket South Africa will not pull the plug on their powerful franchise.

Even Herschelle Gibbs, dropped from the South African Test squad and who is playing for the Cape Cobras, cannot join the IPL until he ends his obligations with his franchise in his home country.

Now the players, including those from the Titans — Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel — will have to return to South Africa when the Kanpur Test ends.

Dr Logan Naidoo, manager of the Proteas, and also vice-president of Cricket South Africa, said, “I received a call from our Johannesburg headquarters informing me of the latest developments.

As such a decision taken by the Cape Cobras to release their top players for the IPL has been revoked by CSA, and as such the full South African squad will return to South Africa next week,” he said.

With this, all players may end up with a few dollars short in their pay cheques at the end of the IPL event. Smith is signed by the Rajasthan Royals, while Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Dale Steyn were to head to Bangalore Royal Challengers, while AB de Villiers was heading to the Delhi Dare Devils and Prince for the Mumbai Indians.

We still hope that there will be a balancing act and that both the South African Domestic Cricket and IPL will emerge as winners.

Five South African players who are currently in India for the Future Cup will stay over for IPL -The Cobras confirmed yesterday.

The Cobras have allowed them to skip domestic Standard Bank Pro20 tournament. Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher and Ashwell Prince will thus remain in India after the third Test in Kanpur, which starts on April 11.

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, indicated that the Titans might also follow suit and allow three of their IPL players who are in India - AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel and Dale Steyn - to miss the domestic tournament. He also said that talks were on with the franchises of the three other South African players who are involved in the IPL - Eagles (Loots Bosman), Dolphins (Shaun Pollock) and Warriors (Makhaya Ntini) - to grant exemption to these players.

The Pro20 Series, South Africa’s domestic 20-over tournament, involves seven teams, including Zimbabwe, and concludes on April 25. With the IPL starting on April 18, this means the Cobras’ players will not miss the first week of the tournament. The IPL franchise which benefits the most from this decision is the Bangalore Royal Challengers, who have Kallis, Steyn and Boucher in their ranks. Gibbs is with the Deccan Chargers, while Smith has been signed up by the Rajasthan Royals.

IPL is sure going to be a hto-hot affair with so many star players fighting in one single tournament.