While Australia are still to get over the shock of Adam Gilchrist’s unexpected retirement, the Indian Premier League (IPL) can’t help but rejoice.

Doubts were raised about the Aussie Test and ODI team regulars making it to BCCI’s much-hyped T20 event because of their tour to Pakistan, but now it is likely that Gilchrist will join retired stars Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to India this April.

The only hurdle for Gilchrist could be to get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Cricket Australia. Under the Player’s Obligation section, 1.1 (b) of the IPL contract, cricketers will not be able to play in the IPL without the express permission (read: NOC) of their respective boards.

There is a provision in the NOC which empowers a cricket board to enforce a two-year cooling-off period in case they feel that the player in question was truncating his international career to join the cash-rich IPL venture.

However, Gilchrist—36 years of age—has sought retirement at a time when word was out that he wasn’t fitting into CA’s scheme of things and thus getting the NOC will not be a problem.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told The Indian Express that Gilchrist could certainly join the IPL if Cricket Australia (CA) gave the NOC. “I am sure he will get the NOC and once that happens, he’s free to join the League,” he said.

In case that happens, there will be a scramble for him— with a strike rate of 81.95 in Tests, 96.90 in one-dayers and 145.29 in Twenty20 cricket—among the franchise to sign him at the February 8 players’ auction.

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