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Melbourne: Australia's Test players are set to be allowed to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League before preparing at home for the May tour to the West Indies, the players' union said Thursday.

The Australian Cricketers Association said Cricket Australia has indicated there will be no objection to Test stars Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey playing in the first 14-16 days of the six-week IPL tournament, which starts on April 18.

They will then be required back home for a team camp before the touring party sets off for the West Indies in the second week of May.

"I don't think there will be a problem," said ACA chief executive Paul Marsh. "Certainly based on our discussions with Cricket Australia to date I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be able to play in the IPL, assuming that there are no other commitments to Cricket Australia," he said.

CA spokesman Peter Young said the governing body was in the process of going through details and options, which include the possibility of practice matches before the West Indies tour.

"Our first priority is to ensure the team has appropriate preparation for the tour of the West Indies," he said.

Australia's opening tour match in the West Indies is scheduled to start on May 16 ahead of the opening Test in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 22.

This week's cancellation of the tour to Pakistan over security concerns opens a window in a crowded international schedule, allowing some Australian players to fulfill around one-third of their IPL contracts and collect pro rata payments.

Symonds is the highest paid Australian player, with a contract of $1.35 million for a full season. Lee is on $900,000, Ponting $400,000, Hayden $375,000 and Hussey $350,000.

Brabourne out of race to stage IPL games

Mumbai: Brabourne Stadium will not be able to host any of the IPL matches. This was revealed by the CCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur.

"We were very keen to host the matches but the arrangements couls not be worked out with the IPL franchisee-Reliance Ltd". "The discussions between the parties failed over the quota arrangements", he said.

"They wanted the complete Club House and the Members' Children Enclosure at their disposal which would have deprived our members to watch the match from their own club".

"The President and Executive Committee of the Club had several meetings to deliberate on this issue and eventually as per the Bye-Laws, we could not have asked our members to stay away for watching the matches". And this has resulted in their informing us that the IPL matches can not be held at CCI", club's President Raj Singh Dungarpur and vice president Badal Mittal said.

In fact, Mukesh Ambani had expressed his desire to host the final at this venue but the settlement could not be reached, it is learnt.

Now the IPL franchise has two options to host few matches — the DY Patil Stadium and Mumbai Cricket Association's Wankhede Stadium.

However, in view of the 2011 World Cup in India (and other sub-continents), Wankhede Stadium will need to postpone the commencement of renovation of the entire stadium till the inagural IPL Twenty20 matches are over.

DLFIPL: Gets A New Associate Sponsor

Car maker Hyundai has signed an exclusive advertising deal with Sony to telecast its ads during the IPL series. After Vodafone last week, Hyundai becomes the second associate sponsor to make a deal SET.

Though the deal amount was not mentioned it is estimated to be in range of 23 crores rupees.

With this agreement Hyundai will be the only automobile maker to be advertised during the 44 day tournament.

Kolkata Knight Riders: SRK says without sponsors all these won’t be possible.

SRK said that without the support of sponsors of his team that include Belmont, Nokia, HDIL and Tag Heur it would be impossible for his company to have gone ahead with the IPL Kolkata - Kolkata Knight Riders team building, launching and promoting it.

He said as an actor he does not make that kind of money. Whereas the other teams like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, IPL Hyderabad were all owned by big companies that had lot of financial backing.

Kolkata on the other hand is backed by a few individuals who don’t have that kind of money power said Khan. Winning and losing is part of the game but we will play to win said Badshah of Bollywood.

Bangalore Royal Challengers To Promote UB brands

Bangalore Royal Challengers is currently looking at promoting the United Breweries group brands, Mallaya said. They want to connect with the youth of India.

The team includes Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble the local boys, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Misbah-ul-Haq, Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan, Nathan Bracken, Jacques Kallis, Cameron White and Mark Boucher. Bangalore would have loved to have Robin Uttappa but they lost him to IPL Mumbai - Mumbai Indians during the first IPL auction.

Still, they have a pretty strong team with Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble as the bowling attack

IPL Bangalore - Bangalore Royal Challengers Launched

In a glittering ceremony Vijay Mallaya owned Bangalore team was launched. The team will be known as the Bangalore Royal Challengers. It will be lead by former captain Rahul Dravid and has current captain Anil Kumble in its ranks. Jacques Kallis of South Africa is the other star player of the team.

Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe will be the chief cricketing officer for the outfit. The team colors will be red and gold.