Even as the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid gear up for a final dash at glory in the shortest format, IPL champions Mumbai Indians have curiously dropped Ricky Ponting for the tournament.
Bought by the cash-rich franchise to lead the side in the sixth edition of the IPL earlier this year, Ponting chose to bench himself after failing to perform.
The task of leading the star-heavy side was thrust on Rohit Sharma, who ably handled the responsibility to give MI its first IPL silverware.
The other notable absentee is Kumar Sangakkara, who will play for the Sri Lankan side Kandurata Maroons instead of Sunrisers Hyderabad, ostensibly due to some serious pressure exerted by Sri Lanka Cricket.
Sangakkara, while speaking to a cricket website vented his ire, saying that he had to choose Kandurata over Sunrisers after his "loyalty to the country was questioned."
The CLT20 governing council has also taken care of the grouse of the clubs whose star players preferred to play their trade for their IPL teams rather than home clubs. Ten out of the 12 international cricketers have chosen to play for the IPL franchises instead of their domestic sides.
"Players who were named by more than one team were asked to select which team they were going to play for. Teams were then allowed to replace any player who withdrew from their squad and chose to turn out for a different outfit. CLT20 regulations state that when a player chooses to play for an 'away' team, that team must pay the 'home' team $150,000 as compensation," CLT20 GC said in a statement.
PCB applies for Wolves' visa
KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board has applied for visas for the Faisalabad Wolves team which is scheduled to take part in the Champions League T20 in India next month.
An official source said that BCCI had not yet confirmed the participation of the Faisalabad team in the league. "We have been in regular contact with the BCCI over the participation of the Faisalabad Wolves team in the Champions League but so far they have said they were awaiting final word from their government. But they advised us that we should continue our process to send the team to India like obtaining all travel documents and visas for them," the source said.
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