On Wednesday, David Willey is poised to become the 12th England player to receive a call up to the IPL. Yorkshire have received the paperwork from the ECB, who act as the initial broker between the IPL and the counties, and are bracing themselves for the inevitable. The England all-rounder left a pre-season friendly in Leicester on Monday to finalized terms with Chennai Super Kings.
The English counties are now largely resigned to losing their best one-day players in the IPL auction, but aggravation is growing that further players are being called up as like-for-like reinforcements the moment that injuries begin to bite. Yorkshire are feeling more frustrated than most, seemingly losing not just Liam Plunkett - a replacement for Kagiso Rabada at Delhi Daredevils - but now Willey within a week of the new season starting.
Chennai also confirmed their interest, after losing India allrounder Kedar Jadhav to injury. They have room on their overseas roster having not yet replaced New Zealand's Mitchell Santner. Back in England, with the Championship season due to begin on Friday, the feeling is growing that a cut-off date should be imposed by the ECB for England players to take part in IPL. Only the English season clashes with the tournament and county players, having been in pre-season training for weeks, are increasingly regarded as oven-ready replacements. The record number of English players in the tournament will deepen the sense of crisis as county cricket's leading coaches meet at Edgbaston on Tuesday to consider how to respond to the lure of sundry worldwide Twenty20 leagues to the top limited-overs players in the country.
