LONDON (AFP) - The chairman of the billion-dollar Twenty20 Indian Premier League series says he is prepared to move his season forward to accommodate England cricket’s big names.

Lalit Modi maintained that England’s top players were keen to feature in the IPL series, which has already attracted stars from other Test-playing nations.The new competition runs from 18 April to 1 June, putting it in direct competition with the English season.

“I know a lot of them are interested but we don’t want to conflict with the English season,” Modi told the BBC.

“If that means we have to move our matches a few weeks in advance, we would be happy to do that to accommodate the English players. We would like to see a lot of the English players in the IPL but I cannot commit to them until the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) actually finds a window and clears them.”

Modi said the first obstacle to overcome for the new league was to establish the competition’s place in the sporting calendar.

He denied that plans for a second season within the same 12-month period, at the end of the summer, were close to completion.

“We may look at a second season years from now but I don’t see a second season (within the same year) in the next three or four years at least,” he said.

The English players’ representative said Friday that English cricketers should be given the chance to play in the IPL.

Sean Morris, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, warned that if a solution to the issue was not found soon “money will talk.”

“The value of the cricketer has just increased through what is happening in the IPL,” Morris told the BBC.

“It’s perfectly natural for the PCA to want our members to take advantage of that — it’s a unique opportunity.”He was responding to comments from ECB chairman Giles Clarke, who said: “We are not interested in people playing in the IPL.”

Clarke said he would not change the English domestic calendar to suit the Indian league and maintained he was “not getting any pressure” from players wanting to sign up for an IPL team.

At present Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Hampshire all-rounder who has played international one-day and Twenty20 cricket, is the only England player signed up for the first season of the IPL.

Friday, March 28 10:43 am

Source: AFP

MUMBAI, India, March 27: BCCI hopes to keep offensive language and rude gestures out of the Indian Premier League by having the eight team captains take a pledge to abide by the “spirit of cricket”! That is interesting and ideal!!! 

The BCCI, which is also campaigning for a ban on sledging, hopes to avoid the same kind of unsavoury incidents that marred their tour of Australia.

“We (India) are the first to adopt the spirit of cricket,” IPL governing council member Inderjit Bindra told on Thursday’s Hindustan Times.

“And to ensure players abide by it, the captains of all eight teams in the IPL will take a pledge to play by the spirit of the game before the tournament gets rolling.”

A preamble on the spirit of cricket was formally added to the laws of the game at the turn of the century on how it should be played and viewed both on and off the field.

However, following India’s acrimonious tour of Australia, the ICC announced this week a “zero tolerance” crackdown on offensive language and gestures in the sport as part of its drive to eradicate “sledging”.

During the tour, India’s Harbhajan Singh was accused of racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, while Matthew Hayden was reprimanded for calling the Indian spinner an “obnoxious weed”.

The ICC said while verbal exchanges could not be eliminated entirely, so umpires had to decide what they felt were acceptable levels.

The IPL Twenty20 tournament begins on April 18.

March 27, 2008, 2:25 AM ET

Source: ESPN.com