Shane Warne said its a real shame that the English players are absent from the DLF IPL, which allows players to make good money and to develop their talents under the training of their greatly talented counterparts from all across the world.

Shane Warne Warne said, “It is a real shame that players like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are not in the IPL.” Warne also said the decision by the ECB to ban players from participating in the DLF IPL was short-sighted and ridiculous.

Several English players have already expressed their interest to play in the IPL. Kevin Pietersen is just one among them. “It is a ridiculous decision… ECB is stopping the players from joining IPL. It is a shame on the part of ECB that their players are missing from such a big tournament,” Warne said.

It is  said that ECB fears that the Indian IPL could hit hard its own domestic tournaments and thus take the shine away from the county matches to the glitzy Indian IPL matches.

After seeing several players expressing interest in participating in the DLF IPL and smelling a revolt, the ECB has softened its stand and has now allowed the players to take part in the 2010 edition of the DLF IPL.

Warne said, “ICC should show some common sense and open a six-week window for the IPL in its international tour schedule. That would make the job easier for the cricket boards of various countries.”

Shane Warne, the captain and coach of Rajasthan Royals, will face off with Kings X1 Punjab, being led by stylish Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh.

A report said the ICC has decided on this after its executive board meeting in Dubai.
Sunil Gavaskar had described cricket playing nations Australia and England
as “dinosaurs, still trying to voice their prejudiced opinions in the media,
and may not open their eyes and see the reality”. Gavaskar’s comments came in a syndicated column.This had reportedly infuriated the ICC.

Sunil Gavaskar was commenting on India’s controversial Sydney Test’s match referee
Mike Procter, following the latter’s ruling against Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Andrew Symonds had alleged that Harbhajan Singh had racially abused him.
Mike Procter’s ruling against Harbjhajan Singh was , however, dismissed by
the appeals commisioner.

According to the contract, IPL must respect international schedules and not take on players that do not have board clearance to take part in IPL.

This would include players who have been retired for up to two years, said a report in The Australian.

FICA chief executive Tim May has said that ICC’s attempts to prevent players from retiring to take part in the IPL could lead to legal action.

The ICC has said that the concept of nation-versus-nation cricket was the “lifeblood” of the game and must always be given the highest possible priority. The statement has come in the wake of the impending Australian tour to the West Indies.

Three West Indies players Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan may not be able to play in most of the test series because of their IPL commitments.

The last Cricket World Cup in West Indies had 16 nations, inviting criticism that it prolonged the tournament and that including more teams would affect the standards of the game.

The ICC has not drawn up the schedule of the 2011 tournament.

Ten full member nations would be automatically eligible for the World Cup. The remaining four nations would be semi-finalists of the World Cup qualifiers to be held in Dubai in 2009.

Meanwhile, the 2008 Champions Trophy would be held from September 11 in Pakistan, subject to a security assessment in June.

The ICC executive board meet in Dubai also named for BCCI president I S Bindra as principal advisor, a newly-created post.

Imtiaz Patel was a director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa. I S Bindra is the president of the Punjab Cricket Association and is a member of the IPL governing board.

The ICC says the DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament is a domestic cricket tournament, even though top stars from all over the world are participating.

The DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament features 8 teams and more than 70 international cricketers were auctioned for various teams in Mumbai in February. The second round of auction takes place on March 11, 2008.

The ICC decision would mean that player performance would not recorded in Twenty20 official statistics.

The DLF IPL Twenty20 tournament stars on April 18 and the final will be held on June 1 and would have 59 matches.

Star Indian batsman and IPL Mumbai team icon Sachin Tendulkar has regained the World No. 1 batsman slot, deposing Australian captain Ricky Ponting, following his 399 runs in the Commonwealth Bank series in Australi, which India won 2-0 in the final.

Sachin Tendulkar’s impressive scores includes valiant knocks of an unbeaten 117 and 91 in the finals at Sydney and Brisbane respectively.

This is the first time that Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored 16,361 runs in one-day internationals, including 42 tons, is regaining the World No 1 slot after 2004. Sachin is the icon player and likely captain of the Mumbai IPL team.

But Australian captain Ricky Ponting is still in No 2 slot, ahead of South African skipper Graeme Smith. Ricky Ponting has a 17 point lead over Graeme Smith in the International Cricket Council rankings, though Ricky Ponting made only 191 runs in the last 10 ODIs he played.

Ricky Ponting’s deputy Adam Gilchrist, who announced his retirement from international cricket, ended up sixth in the LG ICC rankings.

Ricky Ponting would play for Kolkata in the IPL tourney, while Adam Gilchrist will play for Hyderabad.