NEW DELHI, Feb 5: England’s Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff will be among the most coveted assets at Friday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction, as teams seek to strengthen their line-ups for the second edition of the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.

Aggressive batsman Pietersen and all-rounder Flintoff feature prominently in the list of 43 players who will be auctioned by the IPL governing council to the eight Indian city-based franchises.

Pietersen’s reserve has been fixed at $1.35 million and Flintoff’s bidding will start at $950,000, making them the most expensive players on offer. Last year’s top price was $1.5 million paid for India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke also had a base price of $1 million, but announced on Thursday that he would not participate in the IPL this year, preferring a rare chance at rest in a busy year. England players were not involved in last year’s competition, but England’s cricket authorities have authorized their availability for 2009 six-week season.

Besides Pietersen and Flintoff, other English players Paul Collingwood, Luke Wright, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel have signed contracts that allow the IPL governing body to put them up for auction.

Australia is the foreign nation with the most players up for auction with 15, including pacemen Stuart Clark and Shaun Tait and opening batsman Phil Jacques.

The list of South Africans includes J.P. Duminy. The 2009 IPL season will be held from April 10 to May 29.

Meanwhile, franchises have opted to terminate the contracts of six Pakistan cricketers – Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez.

With players from across the border being denied permission to play in the IPL, four other contracts – Umar Gul, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir – have been “suspended”, with the affected teams allowed to sign replacements outside of the auction.

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, spoke of the possibility of games eventually being staged outside the franchise’s home city.

There were 43 names on the list, but with the Pakistan players unavailable, the franchisees got together and extended the wish-list to 51.

“A player can pull out only if he is injured or has an FTP [Future Tours Programme] commitment,” Modi said.

“Regarding the Pakistan players, franchisees have the option of either terminating their contract or suspending it.

“If they terminate the contract, the player becomes a free agent and the team gets a slot [in the auction].”—Agencies