Top Australian cricketers may abandon Victoria to play in cash cow IPL

Top cricketers of Victoria like Cameron White, Andrew McDonald and David Hussey may walk away from their state to play in the mega bucks Indian Premier League, as the team prepares to defend its honours in the Sheffield Shield

The Shield final clashes with the start of the Indian Premier League's Twenty20 tournament next month.

Victoria's all-time leading run-scorer Brad Hodge has already made the choice and quit the team just before Christmas so that he can play for Kolkata Knight Riders.

Top bowler Dirk Nannes says he is thinking about ditching Victoria to join the Delhi Daredevils, where he would pick up 250,000 dollars for two months' work, The Herald Sun reports.

The mainstay of the Victorian team - captain Cameron White, batsman David Hussey, and Test all-rounder Andrew McDonald - face a similar predicament.

Hussey stands to make 650,000 dollars with KKR while White has been offered 500,000 dollars by the Bangalore Royal Challengers. McDonald is on 100,000 dollars with Delhi, still considerably more than the 3900 dollars he would earn playing in the Shield final.

Those three stars also earn a 200,000 dollars base payment for playing for Victoria.

Even Bushrangers coach Greg Shipperd is in the same dilemma as he has a 100,000 dollars contract to guide the Delhi Daredevils through the second IPL season.

IPL chief Lalit Modi has threatened that players not in India on time could be penalized, "including termination of contracts, jeopardising future participation."

Nannes admitted it was a delicate situation and quitting the Vics was an option.