THE megabucks Indian Premier League has been postponed indefinitely – meaning England stars face a mega £4million loss of earnings.
Ben Stokes was due to be the top British earner on a £1.4million deal with Rajasthan Royals.
He and other homegrown players might not be able to appear if a revised IPL schedule clashes with the end of the reduced English season.
Other big earners include Sam Curran (£590,000 with Chennai Super Kings) Eoin Morgan (£560,000 with Kolkata Knight Riders) and Jos Buttler (£500,000 with Rajasthan Royals).
Altogether, 11 England players were due to appear in the world’s richest T20 event.
A whopping £15million was spent on 62 cricketers in December’s auction, around £4m of which went on the 2019 50-over world champions.
The IPL was originally due to start in late March and then delayed until April 15.
But, with India in lockdown because of Covid-19, organisers had no choice other than delay until further notice.
England are due to arrive in the subcontinent in late September for a white ball series on their way to the Twenty20 World Cup, which starts in Australia on October 18.
The ECB are keen to release funds to ensure coronavirus does not decimate the county scene with a package totalling £61million dished out to counties and clubs.
Centrally contracted players have agreed to a three-month pay cut of 20 per cent, releasing £500,000 to the ailing grassroots game.
In addition, Jos Buttler auctioned his World Cup winning shirt from last summer’s heroics – raising over £65,000 for his local NHS hospitals in Surrey.
