Injury—ravaged Mumbai Indians, who have lost the services of their captain Sachin Tendulkar along with seven others, have been given concession in the number of foreign players they could field per match in the Champions League Twenty20.
The Mumbai outfit have been allowed to field five overseas players instead of the usual four, because of the injuries to their players, provided those cricketers are contracted to play in the 2011 IPL, a CLT20 media release said here.
Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare and Pawan Suyal have been ruled out of the tournament, and in their places Mumbai Indians have nominated Andrew Symonds, Dilhara Fernando, R Sathish, Sarul Kanwar and Abu Nechim Ahmed.
“In the current circumstances, if the Mumbai Indians suffer one more injury to an Indian player, they will be unable to field a team due to CLT20 rules restricting teams to a maximum of four overseas players in any one match,” the release said.
“As a result, the CLT20 Governing Council has approved a recommendation by the Technical Committee to ensure the Mumbai Indians will be permitted to select up to five overseas players in any one team, provided those players were contracted to play in the 2011 IPL.
“This was considered the most appropriate solution to respect player safety and ensure no player plays for a CLT20 team unless he played for or was contracted to play for that team in the qualifying event,” it added.
This ruling would be applicable to any other team only if they suffer injuries like Mumbai Indians have suffered, which compromise their participation in the event, the release said.
The current MI squad of 14 players can be increased by just one from their remaining injury—free contract list.
MI open their campaign in the tournament against defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on September 24.
Mumbai Indians squad: Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, James Franklin, Aiden Blizzard, Davy Jacobs, Kieron Pollard, Dilhara Fernando, R Sathish, Ambati Rayudu, Tirumalasetti Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sarul Kanwar and Abu Nechim Ahmed.
