well too bad for symonds... Gibbs fan... that he cant he play in the IPL even if he decides to pull out of the Pakistan tour as Cricket Australia wont give him a No-Objection Certificate. so even if the franchises knew about the fact that he was going to pull out of the tour, they know that the board wont release him. in fact symonds will do himself more harm by not going to pakistan not getting earnings from IPL as well as his regular match fees. as for buying him when he's not available, yeah well if he's not playing they needn't pay him as much... i'm not exactly sure if they dont pay him at all for not being available this season...or they cut some amount from his contractual salary(like 25%), in that sense he maybe a smart buy given his T20 skills. also the team rules say there can be 4 foriegn players, 2 under 20 guys and a few players from the catchment areas of the cities where the franchises are located.

Have you watched the series ?

The Australians have not exactly scored many runs. And you fail to point out the recent disastrous opening experiment with him on the Indian tour.

It's not that hard to push and chip the ball around during the middle overs of a 50 over match with the feild back and no attacking feilders around you. And his feilding is slightly above average at best.

If I was picking my 50 over team and I had him and a young Dean Jones to choose from, I'd pick Dean Jones ahead of him every day of the week.

I bet some exited England players possibly with the initials KP, AF, PC and possibly MP were asking the ECB politely about participation in the event.

P.S Symond's shout for drinks during the next ashes tour

And yet, amidst all this bad batting form which plagues the Australian team, he still manages to be the fourth-highest scorer in the series so far, scoring over 200 runs in five innings with an average of over 70. Impressive, no?

So? Don't use him as an opener. I'm not arguing there.

And yet, it's something that he's done better than almost anyone else in the competition.

I'm sure you're making a point here, I just don't know what it is. So, you wouldn't pick Clarke ahead of one of the greatest ODI batsman who ever lived? How is that meant to reflect badly on him? Hey, if you give me the choice between Clarke as a Test player and, say, a young Bradman, I know who I'd pick.

doesn't matter what u say acker....i like Michael Clark for the simple reason that he's bailed out the aussie team whenever they needed him badly. i dont care about the number of runs he's scored, btw he is currently the highest! anyday i would have him in the australian team for the same reason i would pick dravid in the Indian ODI team just for the fact both of them can hold one end up. the innings against india was outstanding given that wickets fell around him like a pack of cards.i mean hussey and clark really make the difference for me when i compare the three batting line-ups in this tri-series.

This whole process struck me like seeing a bunch of prize cows up on the dock. The money would be good, but how de-humanising......

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surprisingly...this is exactly what my mom felt when we were watching the news about the IPL auction....they were being sold like a bunch of prize cows, it did sound a bit inhumane...i couldn't think of a better way they could do it..anyone else have an idea how these cricketers could have been bought by the franchises with the process being fair??(by fair i mean no team using financial might to look very strong!!!)

No, i can't think of a better way either sanketh. Still, for a human being to be bid for....it's like something out of ancient Rome or something

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You obviously haven't seen the interviews with the England players saying they would rather play for their country then.

well there is an interview of andrew flintoff in which he says playing in IPL is not an option for the english players as they are contracted to play county cricket during the summer...also the england side hosts new zealand this summer. i'm not so sure they would decline the offer to make a quick buck, maybe a few guys who genuinely feel like they dont want to be part of the madness that is the IPL, but i'd be surprised if a few english players weren't rueing the timing of the the competition. if u take a look at it, a young guy like ishant sharma gets USD 2500 for every ball he bowls considering he bowls 4 overs in all the matches he plays and that in my opinion is a gr8 deal. mike hussey got that amount of USD 2500 as player of the match vs srilanka, for a laborious innings.