January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

MUMBAI, Jan 25: The Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to auction its 80 contracted players on February 8. But it may not be able to put one its star attractions — Pakistani batsman Mohammed Yousuf — up for grabs.

On Thursday, the batting sensation from across the border had a lawyer Tafazzul Rizvi flown in to Mumbai for the arbitration proceedings initiated against him last October by Zee group chief Subhash Chandra.

The Pakistani lawyer, however, came up with an application questioning the jurisdiction of arbitrator former chief justice of J&K high court BP Saraf to hear the matter.

The ICL which had caused a stir in the cricketing world when it snapped up Yousuf, soon ‘lost’ him to IPL. ICL served him a notice to explain his stand. Yousuf did not reply and ICL invoked the arbitration clause and sued him for an amount in excess of $1 million.

Justice Saraf passed an ad-interim order on December 15, 2007, restraining Yousuf from playing in any matches organised by IPL till the plea is decided. On Wednesday when the player’s lawyer sought to vacate the interim ban, the arbitrator said the restraining order would continue against Yousuf till the question of jurisdiction is heard and decided by him.

As a result, said ICL’s lawyer Hitesh Jain, “Yousuf will not be allowed to participate in the cricket auctioning process of IPL or play any of their matches.” — Agencies