Morris Reiterates England's IPL Stance

Morris - stressed importance of international cricket.

England intend to remain committed to their existing television contracts and will resist attempts to create an annual window to allow players to cash in on the Indian Premier League.

The fixture clash between England's annual early season Test series and the IPL, which is being staged between April 10 and May 29 next year, has caused considerable friction in recent weeks between the two parties.

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, has set his sights on having leading England players available for next year's tournament while the England and Wales Cricket Board remain firm on their stance that players will only be released for a short period.

It has prompted calls for an international window to make room for all players to exploit the world's most lucrative tournament, but England are poised to maintain their existing fixture schedule.

"My understanding is that the ICC, IPL and ourselves have made it very clear from the word go that international cricket takes precedence over domestic tournaments and I think that will be the case," stressed Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket.

"That's the very clear message we get from ICC. I understand that is what IPL think as well.

"Last year at IPL, for example, the Australians were only there for 25% of the time because they had a Test series in the West Indies.

"I think we've made it very clear that we are very happy for the players to have a window of opportunity to play in the IPL, it will be a great opportunity for them, not least as we have a Twenty20 World Championship in England next summer.

"We possibly don't play as much Twenty20 cricket as one or two other countries so it is a good opportunity to play."

England's current £130million television contract with Sky and Channel Five does not expire until 2013, but the ECB believe each Test generates around £5million in income - with Tests at Lord's double that - leaving them in no position to withdraw from any existing contracts.

Morris also underlined that the ECB remain confident there will not be a conflict over the IPL issue with the players, who are yet to sign their central contracts as they await further discussions between their employers and the IPL.

"We've had a lot of discussion with the players' representatives," he said. "We've met and spoken regularly with them and it's a very complicated process.

"The players are on a (winter) contract, not a central contract, and none of the players have come up to me with any concerns at all. We've had very long and very fruitful discussions through the Team England player partnership.

"One of the key considerations in terms of the central contract is that we have to iron out the early part of next season. Until we do that then potentially it's difficult to nail everything down.

"We're likely to be playing, or will be playing, Test matches in the early part of May and clearly that will have an impact on the amount of time that players may or may not go to IPL."

England's Test series next summer is due to start at Lord's on May 7 with Sri Lanka initially pencilled in as a replacement for Zimbabwe, who withdrew after political pressure.

Since then, Sri Lanka's players have made it clear they would prefer to play in the IPL to leave England facing a two-match Test series against their A side.

West Indies have also been pencilled in, although as yet no opponents have been confirmed for the early part of next summer.

"We're hoping to confirm things as soon as we possibly can, we have to nail it down not just for our peace of mind and to sort central contracts out but the grounds hosting the games need to know," added Morris.

"We are working as hard as we can to make sure that happens."