Shoaib Akhtar & Co to sue IPL

Five leading Pakistani cricketers, who were dumped by the IPL, are planning to file a case in an Indian court against the IPL bosses and franchises for canceling their contracts prematurely and not clearing their dues for the term of their three-year contracts.

Pakistan captain Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar, who all played in the inaugural IPL tournament, have asked an agent to go to Mumbai and file the damages suit there in the High Court.

"The agent represents Mohammad Asif and now he has also been approached by these players to help them file a case against the IPL in Indian court," a 'Jang' report said today.

The players feel the IPL wrongly terminated their three-year contracts after the Pakistan government did not allow these players to go to India because of the strained political relations between the two countries.

The IPL has now been shifted to South Africa for security reasons and the players want the IPL to either allow them to play in the IPL in South Africa or compensate them fully for their three-year contracts or revive them.

"The players believe since they didn't refuse to play in the IPL the organisers should not terminated their contracts at a short notice without clearing dues for the full three-year contract," the report said.

Interestingly, the IPL and its franchises did not terminate the contracts of four other Pakistani players, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Misbah-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal and has suspended their contracts.

Gul, infact, has now informed his team, Kolkata Knight Riders to increase his contractual fee as he was brought in the players auction last year for only $1,50,000.

Mohammad Hafeez another Pakistani player who represented the Kolkata Knight Riders only had a one-year contract with them while Asif has been released by Delhi Daredevils after testing positive in a dope test carried out in the league last year by the organisers. However, Asif has now got his dues from the IPL/Franchise and has no grievances.