The present impasse between the Indian Premier League and Cricket Australia took an interesting twist today. The IPL chairman Lalit Modi announced that the BCCI has asked him to entertain players to the city-based Twenty20 league even without a ‘no objection certificate’ from their home associations.

This comes in the wake of Cricket Australia dilly-dallying over giving a ‘go ahead’ to their players joining the IPL because of a possible conflict of rival sponsors. CA is keen to protect its sponsors and wants to avoid a situation where their contracted players turn up for a team bearing competitors’ branding.

At the end of the first day of the interaction between franchisees and the IPL governing board, Modi said: “We have not taken any decision yet, but the IPL governing council has the mandate to decide on whether to take away the clause that presently makes the ‘no objection certificate’ from boards mandatory.”

Not just that, Modi also added that even the clause regarding the cooling period — the early IPL draft stipulated a retired player to stay away from the league for two years — too might be dropped.

In case the IPL governing body actually goes ahead and makes these amendments, it will mean that a present day player can play the city-based tournament despite objections by his home association.

Technically, this means that in case a present day Australian player prefers to play for the IPL and opts out of the tour to Pakistan -- IPL and the Australia’s away series against Pakistan are coinciding — CA wouldn’t have a say in the matter. His future as an international cricket turning up for Australia might be in doubt, though.

... contd.