IPL 3 is ready to be kicked off in March 2010, while there is a lot of controversy over why the Pakistani players have not been picked for in the auction.

There are quite a few interesting turnaround of events happening which are closely related to this topic.

After the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani government had banned their players from participating in the second edition of IPL that was held in South Africa. After that, Ijaz Butt, the chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board discussed with Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner, on this topic. As a result, eleven Pakistani players were made eligible for the auction. Unfortunately, none of the Pakistani players have been picked by any of the franchisees.

In addition there are four players, Umar Gul from Kolkata Knight Riders, Misbah-ul-Haq from Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir from Rajasthan Royals. These four players are eligible, if the franchisees decide to take them, if there is a necessity for a replacement.

Given all these events, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now lodged a protest officially with International Cricket Council (ICC) on this topic. While the Indian Government has distanced itself from this issue, to make sure there is no political association made to this, Board Control of Cricket for India (BCCI) has also said that it is upto the franchise owners to take the decisions on who they want to hire and who to refuse.

As India gains its control over world cricket, it is quite obvious that people begin to feel threatened. It will be very interesting to see how this develops in the next few weeks.