IPL not a threat to cricket in England: ECB

London, Mar 22 (UNI) Dismissing concerns that English players will be poached by the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), ECB chairman Giles Clarke revealed he has an agreement with the BCCI which prevents them from recruiting cricketers without NOCs.

''We have a contract with BCCI,'' Clarke told Sky Sports.

''In that contract, they're not allowed to take any English players of any kind to play in IPL if there is no 'No Objection Certificate'.'' Clarke denied that middle-order batsman Kevin Pietersen could cut short his England career to play in the IPL.

''If he didn't get an NOC from England, he couldn't,'' he stated. ''IPL will not play any player who has not received an NOC.'' The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) would be powerless to prevent Pietersen from joining the non-sanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL), although that would mean he could be barred from playing Test or county cricket in the future.

The English board has disallowed five overseas players from county cricket this season because they could not obtain NOCs from their home boards after joining the ICL.

''If they obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from their home board then we're going to consider their cases,'' Clarke said. ''If they can't then we won't.'' ''I don't think we're telling players they can't earn a living. We're saying here are the rules in our country. Our job is to nurture, to protect and to develop cricket in England and Wales. We make those judgments as to how we go about doing that. We do so with clarity, legally,'' he added.

''If people from other countries have different views as to how we're doing that, I'm sorry but they're not in our country.

We'll run the game according to our regulations and our rules and we expect them to comply.

''We have no interest in seeing rogue leagues in other countries develop. We have no interest in seeing rogue leagues in our country develop.'' UNI XC AB RAR BD1932