Mumbai Indians allowed 5 foreigners, others object

Ever since the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched in 2008, franchises have been seeking permission from the governing council (GC) to field five foreign players in the playing XI. All these years, the league turned a deaf ear to those pleas. But on Thursday, one team was granted permission to field five foreigners in the XI, albeit for the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20).

Mumbai Indians (MI), struggling to field a XI, have been allowed — by the CLT20 governing council — to field five foreign players in the tournament starting on Friday. The authorities, though, made it clear that it’s a one-off decision and was taken considering the extraordinary situation that MI are in.

However, the GC’s decision has led to instant resentment from other teams, particularly from the IPL teams taking part in the tournament. It is understood that even Chennai Super Kings are not too happy with the decision. Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore are the other two IPL teams in the tournament.

After the decision was made public on Thursday morning, the IPL teams are learnt to have spoken to the authorities, particularly the league’s new chairman, Rajiv Shukla. The franchises are understood to have also spoken to Sundar Raman, who is the COO of the IPL as well as CLT20.

Officials from the other three IPL teams have conveyed to Shukla that if such a decision were to be made, then it should have applied to all the teams. It was learnt that the three teams wanted to dash off a letter of protest to the IPL and CLT20 authorities, but it could not be immediately confirmed if they actually did so.

We’ve conveyed our objection to the authorities. It is not a protest against the Mumbai Indians team. Our sympathies are with them,” said an official from one of the three IPL teams.

CLT20 authorities gave the concession to MI after eight of their players were found injured. They are also believed to have provided the respective medical certificates. Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ali Murtaza, Suryakumar Yadav and Dhawal Kulkarni, besides Aditya Tare and Pawan Suyal are injured.

In the current situation, Mumbai have eight Indian and seven foreign players in their nominated 15. In case another Indian player gets injured, Mumbai will not be in a position to field a XI with the actual four-foreigner rule.

“As a result, the CLT20 governing council has approved a recommendation by the technical committee that to ensure the integrity of the tournament, the Mumbai Indians will be permitted to select up to five overseas players in any one team, provided those players were contracted to play in the 2011 IPL,” a CLT20 release said.

The technical committee comprises Niranjan Shah, Michael Brown, Dean Kyno and Ravi Shastri. “It’s an exceptional decision taken considering the situation the Mumbai team is in. If such a situation arises for the other teams, we’ll extend the same facility to other teams as well,” Shah told DNA. Meanwhile, MI have named Harbhajan Singh as their skipper for the tournament.

MI Squad: Harbhajan Singh (C), Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, James Franklin, Aiden Blizzard, Davy Jacobs (WK), Kieron Pollard, Dilhara Fernando, R Satish, Ambati Rayudu (WK), T Suman, Y Chahal, Sarul Kanwar, Abu Nachim Ahmed