MUMBAI, India, CMC – Eight West Indians, including former Test captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, have been picked for the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction later this month.
Sarwan and other current West Indies players Kemar Roach and Sulieman Benn made the cut yesterday for the IPL auction on January 19.
Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Daren Ganga, Darren Bravo, and Wavell Hinds complete the list of West Indians in the pool.
The eight IPL franchises chopped 45 players from the initial list of 96 players who had submitted their names for the 2010 edition.
Two other West Indians, Tino Best and Carlton Baugh, who had submitted registrations for the third IPL auction, are not among the final 51 players up for the auction.
There had been “no assurance or guarantee”, the IPL said, that the players applying for registration would be added to the auction list or, if so added, that the player will be purchased during the auction.
“IPL accepts no responsibility of any kind whatsoever to the player in this regard,” the IPL said.
Trinidad and Tobago players Ganga, Simmons, Pollard and Bravo, Dwayne Bravo’s younger brother, grabbed international attention by advertising their skills in last October’s Twenty20 Champions League, helping to propel the twin-island republic to the final of the world club tournament.
West Indies captain Chris Gayle, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Bravo, and Dwayne Smith are all expected to compete in the 2010 championship, having already secured contracts.
Currently, Gayle, Bravo and Smith are all doing battle in the T20 Big Bash while Edwards is injured.
For the 2010 tournament from March 12 to April 25, IPL organisers have reiterated that they will negotiate with players directly.
“Please note that the IPL will only deal direct with players themselves and will have no communication with player agents or managers,” the IPL said.
“Any failure by a player to abide by this request will (unless IPL in its sole discretion decides otherwise) result in the player’s name being withdrawn with immediate effect from the IPL Auction Register,” the organisers stated in one of its conditions on the IPL web site.
Australians, boasting 11 names, dominate the auction list followed by South Africa with nine picks.
West Indies and Sri Lanka both secured eight picks, with seven coming from Pakistan, four from New Zealand and one each from Bangladesh, Canada, Holland and Zimbabwe.
Among the non-West Indians up for auction in two weeks are New Zealand’s Nathan McCullum and Shane Bond, Clint McKay and Doug Bollinger, of Australia, Chanaka Welegedara and Nuwan Zoysa (Sri Lanka), Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal (Pakistan) and the South Africans Yusuf Abdulla and Rory Kleinveldt.