Cricket: England stars clear for IPL.

Byline: BY RICHARD GIBSON

ENGLAND'S leading players will head into a Test summer without first-class practice after a deal was brokered on their central contracts.

The dozen men under England and Wales Cricket Board control have finally signed their 12-month deals, which stipulate a 21-day window of opportunity to play in the Indian Premier League.

That period of time appears to have satisfied all parties with Lalit Modi, the IPL's kingpin, speaking positively yesterday about the possibility of Englishmen joining the second season of the competition after initially turning down a 15-day proposal.

The three-week spell for Test players will begin in April, shortly after the conclusion of the current Caribbean tour.

"Contracts have been signed by the players and we are waiting on the IPL to come back with confirmation," said Paul Collingwood, on the first full day of England's 11-week trip. "From our point of view, the IPL is exciting."

However, the compromise comes at a cost: the ECB have sanctioned half the firstchoice team entering the first Test against West Indies at Lord's on May 7 without any County Championship action behind them.

The 21-day agreement means those who are snapped up by IPL franchises will not be available for the round of Championship matches ending on May 1 and 2. But Collingwood insists that is not a problem, highlighting the precedent set by the resumption of the pre-Christmas India tour in the wake of the terror attacks.

"We have got six days before the Test match from when we get back, so obviously we have got that period of time to practise with the red ball," Collingwood said.

"What we will be doing, if we do go over there, is playing against the best players in the world because everybody is over there."

"That's important because in April, in England, sometimes you don't get any practice, and this way you are guaranteed hitting lots of balls and working on things against the best.

"There are obviously two sides to the argument but recently we have shown that practice games aren't 100% essential.

"Going into that Chennai Test match proved it - we didn't have a practice match before it and we put in one of our better performances for some time."

TODAY: Commonwealth Bank Series (1 day) Sydney: Australia v South Africa Third One Day International (1 day) Mirpur: Bangladesh v Zimbabwe (03.00)

SUMMARY: Second Under 19 Twenty20 International Paarl South Africa Under 19 147-7 Innings Complete v England Under 19 126-8 Innings Complete (J C Mickleburgh 55) South Africa Under 19 beat England Under 19 by 21 runs

We have shown that practice games aren't 100% essential

PAUL COLLINGWOOD

CAPTION(S):

England's Paul Collingwood along with teammates during a training session on Timothy Beach in St Kitts