Michael Clarke May Join the Indian Premier League
Michael Clarke may be joining the Indian Premier League, or IPL, after all. After a lot of will-he, won't-he speculation, Clarke has confirmed that his management company is in talks with the Pune Warriers, one of the franchisees of the IPL.
Clarke has not played in the IPL yet, preferring to stay away from the lucrative league and focusing on national cricket instead. That might just change, if all goes well in the talks.
However, there is still much to be sorted out before Clarke can walk onto the crease at the IPL. The Caribbean tour between Australia and the West Indies is still on and could do with Clarke's cricket. He has just flown out on Sunday to join his team for the Test series. Clarke did not leave with the team earlier as he was recovering from a hamstring injury, which he got while playing Sri Lanka in the tri-series.
The West Indies tour will go on till the 27th of April, while the IPL begins on April 5th. So, even if Clarke joins the Pune Warriers, he may not be able to play in all the matches because of national duty. The first test is scheduled to begin on April 7th in Barbados.
So far the two countries have played five ODIs and the series are leveled at 2-2. In the final ODI which ended a few hours ago, Australia beat the hosts by 30 runs. This made them winners of the first and the last ODIs, while West Indies have won the second and the fourth. The third game had ended in a tie.
Now the teams will play two Twenty20 matches which start on Tuesday. The Test series will be played only after thse two matches. Clarke has added that he and his management team will make a decision after the talks. He remains non-committal saying that at present his main focus is to "get back and play some good cricket for Australia."
How much Clarke will be paid is still not known. But, going by the IPL salaries and by the way he's being wooed by Pune Warriers captain Saurav Ganguly, it's not going to be a small chunk of change. To put it mildly.