By IANS,
New Delhi : By the end of the second round of matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL), all teams barring Mumbai Indians will be busy at the arrival an departure lounges of airports, either seeing off or receiving overseas players.
The Australian players will be leaving by the month end to join their team for the tour to West Indies next month. But, some teams have already been strengthened with the arrival Pakistani and South African players and some others will be doing so in a day or two.
Australians Brett Lee and Simon Katich will leave their Kings XI Punjab April 29 while their teammates Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey will not be available for Chennai Super Kings. Deccan Chargers will miss Andrew Symonds and Kolkata Knight Riders will be without Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
New Zealanders Jacob Oram (Chennai Super Kings), Daniel Vettori (Delhi Daredevils), Brendon McCullum (Knight Riders) will also leave next week to join their national team for England tour starting Sunday.
The absence of McCullum and Ponting will hit the Knight Riders hard, but it will be offset somewhat by the joining of West Indian opener Chris Gayle and Pakistan medium pacer Umar Gul.
Explosive South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs will join the Deccan Chargers Wednesday and his captain Graeme Smith will strtengthen Rajasthan Royals Thursday.
Royals will also be boosted with the inclusion of Pakistani batsman Younis Khan and medium pacer Sohail Tanveer next week.
Bangalore Royal Challengers will also lose Aussie Ashley Nofke but that won’t be a problem for captain Rahul Dravid because he will have the company of Dale Steyn (South Africa) and Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) in couple of days.
Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel will join Super Kings Friday after fulfilling their domestic cricket commitments in South Africa.