The potentially unbalancing effect on the world game of the Indian “discovery” of Twenty20 cricket continues apace. News that 14 Australian cricketers have signed for the Indian Premier League, starting in Indian cities next April, has given the ICC’s deliberations in Dubai today an added frisson.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has paid more than £1 million to recruit several of the biggest names in cricket.

All but three of the Australians - Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer - are still in or near the national team. The signatures of Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich and Jason Gillespie are reported to have been handed to the BCCI vice-president, Lalit Modi, who is representing the IPL board, in Dubai this week.

If the tournament is really to last 44 days from next April as the BCCI had planned, the potential for disruption to the ICC’s future tours programme is considerable. As things stand, the tournament will coincide with the scheduled Australia tour to Pakistan. Players from Pakistan are also among 44 overseas players reported to have joined the IPL, each of them due to join newly formed “franchises” comprised mainly of Indian players. The owners of the franchises will soon start bidding for the “star” players who will be paid salaries estimated at about £200,000 for playing and marketing.

Because the BCCI gained agreement first from the boards of England, Australia and South Africa, the players have been able to sign without fear of surrendering their right to play Test and 50-over cricket. The two finalists of the IPL will join the finalists of the Twenty20 domestic tournaments in the other three countries next October in another competition with a £2.5 million prize fund.