March 01, 2008	Saturday	Safar 22, 1429

MUMBAI, Feb 29: The Indian Premier League (IPL) will look to reschedule its calendar in future to accommodate England players in the multi-million dollar Twenty20 tournament.

English players do not feature in the 44-day inaugural event which gets underway on April 18.

The dates clash with New Zealand’s tour and the start of the English County Championship season.

“We are working towards that in the coming years,” IPL chief Lalit Modi said on Friday. “It cannot happen overnight.

“They [English players] were interested [this year], but we could not accommodate them because of their commitments,” he added.

Seventy-five leading international names were snapped up by the eight IPL franchises at a players’ auction earlier this month with annual pay cheques starting at six-figures.

Three New Zealand players who have been signed up by IPL teams — captain Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum — are in talks with their board about arriving in England just 10 days before the first Test on May 15 to allow them to play six IPL matches.

The international cricket community is already asking the game’s governing body to set aside a clear slot for the league to avoid a clash of interest for players on national duty.—Reuters