Yorkshire six are cleared to seek IPL riches

The club have decided not to stop captain Andrew Gale, England all-rounders Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad, former England stars Anthony McGrath and Ryan Sidebottom plus opening batsman Adam Lyth from playing in the Twenty20 tournament

during the busiest part of the English summer.

Yorkshire believe it would be unfair to prevent them earning a potentially huge pay cheque on the grounds cricketers from other counties have previously played IPL and are seeking to do so again.

The Yorkshire six have put their names forward for the IPL auction on January 8-9 and could miss six Championship games – more than a third of the programme – and five Clydesdale Bank 40 matches if snapped up by any of the IPL franchises.

The IPL season runs from April 8 (the opening day of Yorkshire's Championship campaign) to May 22 and means the club – already down to the bare bones in terms of personnel – could be severely handicapped.

Bresnan, Shahzad and Sidebottom have attracted a reserve price of $200,000 in the provisional player list – money that would go to the players minus outgoings that would include some form of financial compensation to Yorkshire.

Gale, McGrath and Lyth have each attracted a reserve price of $50,000, while the 10 IPL franchises have until today to decide which players they want to progress from the provisional list to contest the auction.

Although Yorkshire would be unable to cope with the loss of more than half their first team, only Bresnan and Sidebottom are likely to be chosen, with Shahzad an outside chance.

The loss of any player, however, would be a sizeable blow, and the fact six players would rather play IPL than county cricket will disappoint many Yorkshire supporters. Sidebottom only recently signed as the club's overseas player on a lucrative contract and expressed his delight to be returning home.

Gale, meanwhile, placed

significant emphasis last summer on the importance of team unity and pride in playing for the county, and while neither his nor his team-mates' pride is in question, Yorkshire are sure to need all hands on deck to approach their efforts under Gale last season.

If Sidebottom joins the IPL, Yorkshire would probably be unable to sign a temporary overseas replacement even if they wished.

The club are 18m in debt and have had to lay off office staff in recent times, while most potential overseas players will also be involved in IPL.

It means Yorkshire would have to make-do and mend without Sidebottom, who was signed specifically at the expense of recruiting an overseas batsman to replace star player Jacques Rudolph.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's

director of professional cricket, admitted his frustration at the IPL situation but said he could see both sides of the coin.

"Obviously we'd prefer the lads not to go, but, as a former player, I can understand their side of the argument as well," he said.

"It's absolutely not a case of those players not being bothered about Yorkshire, but at the same time if you're going to be paid a significant amount of money, at the end of the day you're a professional cricketer.

"You might break a leg tomorrow and not be able to play any more. I look at it both ways. If I was a player and I was going to be offered big money and other counties have allowed their players to go, I'd probably be a bit miffed if I wasn't allowed to take part."

Moxon believes it could be counter-productive for Yorkshire to put their foot down.

"The club could stop the lads going if they really wanted to dig their heels in, but we find ourselves in a bit of a lose-lose situation," he added. "With other counties having let their players go, I think the board's view is that if you stop players going then you've got disgruntled players on your hands denied the chance to make a potentially life-changing amount of money."

Thirty-seven county players have been entered for the IPL auction:

Derbyshire – Wes Durston, Greg Smith.

Durham – Paul Collingwood.

Essex – Ravi Bopara, Graham Napier, Owais Shah.

Hampshire – Michael Lumb, Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Kent – Simon Cook, Joe Denly, Darren Stevens.

Lancashire – James Anderson, Steven Croft, Sajid Mahmood, Tom Smith.

Middlesex – Eoin Morgan.

Nottinghamshire – Stuart Broad, Paul Franks, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann.

Surrey – Usman Afzaal, Steven Davies, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Tremlett.

Sussex – Monty Panesar, Matt Prior, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy.

Warwickshire – Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott.

Worcestershire – Jack Shantry.

Yorkshire – Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Adam Lyth, Anthony McGrath, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom.

The games they could miss

April 8-11: Worcestershire (A) Championship.

April 14-17: Durham (H) Championship.

April 20-23: Nottinghamshire (H) Championship.

April 24: Netherlands (H) CB40.

May 2: Derbyshire (H) CB40 .

May 4-7: Nottinghamshire (A) Championship.

May 8: Kent (A) CB40 May 11-14.

May 11-14: Hampshire (H) Championship.

May 15: Kent (H) CB40.

May 18-21: Lancashire (A) Championship.

May 22: Worcestershire (A) CB40.