IPL likely to be the part of ICC calendar

MELBOURNE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is likely to include Indian Premier League in its calendar.

The multimillion dollar Twenty20 tournament has been included in the final draft of a radical proposal to revamp ICC's international programming.

The suggested schedule includes IPL and will be presented to the ICC's executive board in Dubai over the next two days, reports The Australian.

Leading players and player associations have demanded a space for the IPL for fear that emerging cricketers will abandon playing for their country and instead take the big money on offer in the IPL.

A recent survey by the Federation of International Players Associations (FICA) showed that more than half of the 64 players polled from seven of the nine active Test countries, including Australia, were willing to sacrifice the end of their international career for IPL money.

The new proposal has each of the nine active Test nations playing each other over a two-year period in three-Test series.

The top four nations would then play semi-finals and a final in the third year, while the fourth year of the cycle would be kept free for "icon" series such as the Ashes.

The current future-tours program, which runs on a six-year cycle, does not end until 2012 but the ICC has already begun discussing what will replace it.