It's time to bite the bullet and play ball. Some of the IPL teams — Hyderabad Sunrisers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pune Warriors, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils — will be severely affected by the IPL commission's decision not to allow Sri Lankan players in the Chennai matches in the league phase.

There's not much they can do about the decision at this stage. There are 13 Lankan players playing in eight teams (Kings XI don't have any Lankan players), with Sunrisers and Delhi Daredevils led by legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene respectively.

Sunrisers have another crucial player — Thisara Perera — in their lineup and they won't be able to play the former CSK allrounder in Chennai.

The composition of their team will be severely affected with these two players going out, but they have no other option but to find suitable replacements.

Delhi, on the other hand, are banking heavily on Jayawardene in the absence of Kevin Pietersen. The wily right-hander could have been extremely handy on the slow track of Chepauk, but they, too, will have to plan without Jayawardene.

Some of the franchises indicated that even though they don't mind playing the league game without their Lankan recruits, but come the qualifier (May 21) and the eliminator (May 22), they will take a harder stance.

"For now, we don't have a choice. But if we reach the final stages of the tournament, it won't be right if we are forced to play without our top players," a franchise source said.

RCB, who have Tillakaratne Dilshan and Muttiah Muralitharan in their squad, will also be affected. Murali, who played the first three seasons for CSK, knows all about the conditions at Chepauk and his absence will be keenly felt.

Dilshan, on the other hand, is destructive at the top of the order and RCB will hope that Chris Gayle will be able to do the job alone.

Pune Warriors, too, have first XI players Angelo Mathews and Ajantha Mendis and in the absence of injured Michael Clarke, allrounder Mathews becomes an even more crucial player.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, will have to go without the mercurial Lasith Malinga. "If it's a question of showing solidarity, then we will comply. We understand the situation in Tamil Nadu.

We also understand the difficulties of taking the games out of Chennai at this stage, it would have been a logistical nightmare," an MI team official said.

Rajasthan Royals (Kushal Janith Perera) and Kolkata Knight Riders (Sachithra Senanayake) won't be too affected by the decision, because both the players are unlikely to play on a regular basis.

CSK would have liked Nuwan Kulasekara to be part of their pace bowling unit but they can live with his non-availability. Off-spinner Akila Dhananjaya, too, isn't much of a loss.


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