The wrangle between Cricket Australia and the Indian Premier League authorities is finally over. Australia's leading players are free to sign up for the Twenty20 extravaganza, Board of Control for Cricket in India vice-president Lalit Modi said on Friday.
Modi, also the chairman of the IPL's governing council, told Cricinfo that the contract issue, which was the bone of contention between CA and the league authorities, has been resolved.
"The issue has been resolved," Modi said. "Two or three Australian players have already signed up with IPL. Hopefully, in the next 24 hours, this will go down the line. The process has already begun. Now it's just a matter of getting through to the Australian players and their agents," Modi added.
Cricket Australia was initially reluctant to the idea, fearing that by allowing its players to participate in the cash-rich IPL a conflict of interests between the team's global sponsors and the league's sponsors could arise.
A number of Australian players, including captain Ricky Ponting and all-rounder Andrew Symonds had publicly expressed resentment at the CA stance and Neil Maxwell, who manages Brett Lee and Mike Hussey, warned that the players could shun Test and ODI cricket and take the IPL plunge if the Board did not change its decision.
CA is also toying with the idea of rescheduling the ICC Future Tour Programme to accommodate the IPL.