Players stuck in middle with IPL, national teams on collision course

The IPL resumes on Saturday after its suspension because of the India-Pakistan conflict, but there are doubts over foreign players and the extended schedule has sparked a showdown with international cricket.

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The IPL will now end on June 3, nine days later than planned, putting it on a collision course with the English summer of cricket and preparations for the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's on June II.

An England ODI series against the West Indies starts on May 29 while the South Africa and Australia squads are due to begin build-up for their WTC final before the end of May.

South Africa says their Test players must leave India by an originally agreed date of May 26.

"Our initial agreement with the IPL and the Indian board was that our players would return (for national duty) on the 26th," said South Africa coach Shukri Conrad, who has eight members of his Test squad contracted to IPL teams.

"As it stands, we're not budging on this."

The IPL was scheduled to finish on May 25, but then the deadly conflict between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan erupted, causing the competition to be suspended last week.

Many overseas players went home and it remains to be seen if all will come back for the decisive stages of the world’s richest cricket tournament.