London: English cricketers may be able to participate in the last two weeks of Indian Premier League's 2009 edition with their Players Association claiming that the country's board was willing to soften its stand on the matter.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has made it clear that its players will not be allowed to play in the cash-rich league until 2010 due to their international commitments.

But, Professional Cricketers Association chief Sean Morris has claimed that the Board will review its stand and players will get to play in the Twenty20 tourney next year albeit only in the later stages.

"There will be a little bit of a window when England players return from West Indies. They will then be able to participate in possibly last two weeks of that tournament in 2009.

"I think they will play. It is going to be driven by market forces, the players will go and play Twenty20 cricket. It makes a lot of sense to allow them to play based on the fact that we've got the World Twenty20 coming up five weeks later," Morris told BBC Sport.

"Don t we want our best player competing in the leading domestic tournament at that time? The communication between the England players and the ECB has increased," he added.

Morris said the players will only benefit from the tournament.

"There are so many positive from the players point of view to come out of these Twenty20 tournaments.

"If you've got a family and you've been travelling the world for 10 months of the year and you've got the option to go an earn twice as much money for five weeks work, no one is going to reject that," he said.
Source : PTI