Barbados Today

NEW DELHI – The players’ auction for the sixth edition of Indian Premier League will be held in January next year either in Chennai or Kolkata.

According to sources in the IPL, the auction would take place either on January 12 in Chennai or eight days later in Kolkata. This was decided by the the governing council of the IPL, headed by Rajeev Shukla, which met in Mumbai today.

The participation of Pakistani players in the auction, paving the way for their re-entry into the cash-rich T20 tournament, will be decided by the IPL governing council at its next meeting before the players’ auction. Pakistani cricketers, who played in the inaugural season in 2007, were kept out of the IPL players auction since the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.

Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab has decided to pay a penalty of Rs 1 crore to the Cricket Board and bury their differences after they had dragged the BCCI to the court for arbitration proceedings following the termination of their contract for alleged breach of regulations.

“Kings XI have sorted out their differences with BCCI by deciding to pay the penalty,” a source said.

Kings XI Punjab will continue to be part of IPL pending the completion of the arbitration proceedings. Among those expected to fetch top dollars are West Indians Chris Gayle who is on the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s books and off-spinner Sunil Narine who bowled Kolkata Knight Riders to the title this year.

In related news global beverage giant PepsiCo has bagged the IPL title sponsorship rights for the next five years (2013-17) for Rs 396.8 crore ($71.77 million approximately), almost double the original title sponsorship deal done in 2008. Along with PepsiCo, the only other contender for the title sponsorships rights was Airtel, an Indian telecommunications company, which bid Rs 316 crore ($57.27 million approx). For the next five years the tournament is to be called Pepsi-IPL.