Champions League dilemma for IPL’s overseas players

MELBOURNE - Indian Premier League’s (IPL) overseas players are finding it tough to choose between their home teams and lucrative Indian franchises for the Twenty20 Champions League to be played later this year in India.

Three Victorian players, skipper Cameron White, fast bowler Dirk Nannes and all-rounder Andrew McDonald and two New South Wales’ players, paceman Nathan Bracken and batsman David Warner are set for a tug of war between their state side and the IPL teams they have signed up for.

South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs has already been asked to choose between his home side Cape Cobras or IPL winners Deccan Chargers.

Deccan Chargers, runners-up Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils have qualified for the inaugural Champions League along with Victoria and New South Wales of Australia and South Africa’s Cape Cobras and Eagles.

Nannes, McDonald and Warner have signed-up with Delhi Daredevils while White and Bracken are contracted with the Royal Challengers.

The players must decide quickly which team they want to represent for the 12-team tournament that will be held Oct 8-23.

Cricket Australia (CA), which is also founding member of the Champions League, said: “Where a state player is also an IPL player, it’s the player’s choice”.

“If an Australian state player opts to go to the IPL side then there is a compensation arrangement for the state side,” CA spokesman Peter Young was quoted as saying by The Age.

Cricketers are not alone, even Victorian coach Greg Shipperd could also face a dilemma because he is the coach of Delhi Daredevils.

Cricket Victoria’s chief executive Tony Dodemaide said that it was too early to predict what conflicted players would do.

“We’ll be sitting down with the cricket operations department, the selectors, coaches and obviously the players themselves and work our way through that,” he said.