Mumbai: Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi said on Thursday that the Pakistani players still have an option of participating in next year’s IPL but since they have missed the deadline for the third edition of the cash rich league, the only chance that they have is to be part of the auction to be held on January 19.

Modi said that the Pakistani cricketers missed the IPL bus by failing to get visas by the December 7 deadline and now nothing can be done since the IPL franchises have already replaced them with fresh recruits. In such a scenario, the only option left with the Pakistani cricketers, if they want to be part of the event, is through the next round of players auction scheduled on January 19.

“Yesterday all the teams were required to do the replacement strategy and the replacement was allowed for those players who are not going to be part of the squad. Unfortunately, the teams have already signed their replacements. Kolkata Knight Riders have already replaced Umar Gul with Charls Langeveldt, Misbah-ul-Haq (of Royal Challengers Bangalore) has been replaced by Roelof van der Merwe and there have been replacements in the Rajasthan Royals also. These replacement contracts have already been placed and cannot be reversed,” Modi said.

“There is an option coming up on January 19. If there are spots open, they can then apply for the auction now. Because you have to go through the process, now the process for applying for auction is by January 1,” he said.

The IPL commissioner added that IPL authorities had given its franchises the go ahead for new contracts after the Pakistani players failed to get their visas before the deadline. “As they missed the deadline, the new contracts have been signed and they (the franchises) have written back to us stating very clearly about the new contracts. It is a very difficult process to reverse the new contracts. We have a system and we cannot abuse the system,” he said.

“The players can go to the auction pool now, because they have missed the trading pool, if any of the team wants to pick them up,” Modi said.

Modi said that he had a discussion with the Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, and he informed him that four Pakistani players — Sohail Tanveer, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal and Umar Gul — had been granted visa by the government but they have to come as fresh recruits in the auction.

“The way auction pool works is that the franchises have to forward us the name of players. At present, they have got 140 players, who are eligible for auction. After shortlisting, the number will come down to 40-50. It would depend on the franchisee which player they want in auction pool,” he said.

Modi said that the IPL board will meet and take a call on January 17 on the contracts which have been terminated because of visa problems.

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