No IPL ban for West Indies players

The IPL chairman has said that West Indies' players won't face any ban from the tournament after they pulled out midway through their tour of India. The IPL governing council also announced that the next season of the IPL will be played between April 9 and May 24. The World Cup final is on March 29, giving players a 10-day gap between the two tournaments, which is more than the five-day break they got in 2011.

"It depends upon them (West Indies players). If they want to play IPL they are welcome," Ranjib Biswal, the IPL chairman, said in Hyderabad, where the BCCI's emergency working committee met to discuss the fallout of West Indies pulling out of the India tour last week.

On Monday one of the WICB directors told ESPNcricinfo that he would like the BCCI to ban the core group of the players, who were instrumental in West Indies aborting the India tour, permanently from the IPL. The director felt it was a "just measure" after the players had "embarrassed" the Caribbean and brought "collective shame" by deciding to leave the India tour mid-way.

But Biswal said the issue of participation of West Indies players had not at all come up for discussion. One of the Biswal's colleagues on the governing council reiterated the BCCI stance on not holding the players responsible for the debacle. "It is all because of the arrogance of the WICB such a thing has happened. The players cannot be blamed."