UNI

Sydney, Feb 13: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has offered Australian players a chance to play in the Twenty20 tournament without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their governing body else they would face a three-year ban from the league.

Chairman of the IPL Lalit Modi said all the players will have to return their signed contracts by Sunday so that the they could be auctioned to the eight franchises next Wednesday.

"They are running out of time," Modi told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"We will gladly take the Australian players without NOCs, we don't want to go down that path but if we have to, we will. I am not the type that won't follow through with what I say; if the contracts are not signed and returned by Sunday the Australian players will not be allowed to take part in the IPL for three years. We are taking a list to owners on Monday," he said.

IPL is a temptation that is hard to resist and a three-year ban would mean that veterans like Matthew Hayden, who are likely to retire by then, will be denied a chance to earn huge money at the end of their careers.

"Each franchise has a $5 million cap for their team, and the contracts are for three years, so when they bid for players at the auction they will use up all of their cap - there will be no money to buy other players later," he said.

But the issue about which Cricket Australia (CA) is most concerned is that the Australian players will have to advertise rivals of their own sponsors, and Modi reiterated last night that global protection for CA's sponsors would not be given "under any circumstances".