Michael Clarke will take a decision on making his first appearance at the IPL in the next few days. Clarke passed up an estimated $1 million to sit out the inaugural season last year, revealing to the Sun-Herald that he wished to spend valuable time with his ill father, Les, at the time.

Clarke said he would ask his fiancee, Lara Bingle, and his family whether they believed he should make himself available for the player auction scheduled for early next month. "I haven't said yes, but over the next few days I'm going to sit with Lara and my family and discuss it," said Clarke. "I need to let them know soon because the auction's taking place soon and they need to know if I'll be involved."

However, even if Clarke does want to play, it is likely it would only be a short stint, given Australia's packed schedule. "We go from South Africa to Pakistan for five ODIs and I think there's a window of only a few weeks where we can play in the IPL before going to England for the Twenty20 World Cup," he said.