MI can play 5 foreigners

Calcutta: Mumbai Indians have been allowed to field five overseas players during the Champions League Twenty20 because several of their Indian players have been ruled out with injuries.

However, all the overseas players must have been contracted by them to play in IPL 2011. Mumbai Indians are without six of their first-choice players, including captain Sachin Tendulkar, and their reinforced squad has seven Indians and seven foreign players.

The other IPL teams will be permitted to field only four overseas players in their starting XI.

Apart from Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ali Murtaza, Dhawal Kulkarni and Suryakumar Yadav have been ruled out of the tournament. They were replaced by Andrew Symonds, Dilhara Fernando, R Sathish, Sarul Kanwar and Abu Nechim.

Moises Henriques is contracted to Mumbai Indians, but cannot be considered for selection since he is a part of the New South Wales squad for the tournament.

Mumbai Indians have not announced a captain yet. Tendulkar (injured toe), Rohit (broken finger) and Munaf (twisted ankle) were injured during India’s recent tour of England.

“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 tournament organisers said in a media release.

“As a result, the CLT20 governing council has approved a recommendation by the technical committee that to ensure the integrity of the tournament 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.

“The current Mumbai Indians squad consists of 14 players. However, they may add another player to their squad from their remaining injury-free contract list if they wish.”

THE SQUAD: Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Andrew Symonds, James Franklin, Aiden Blizzard, Davy Jacobs, Kieron Pollard, Dilhara Fernado, R Satish, Ambati Rayudu, T. Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sarul Kanwar, Abu Nechim.