Two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting leads the cream of Australian players who on Tuesday signed up to play in the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Indian Premier League, along with swashbuckling Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

Ponting, his deputy Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Gillespie and Cameron White are the Australians who have joined the IPL, a media release said here on Tuesday.

Pakistani Afridi and South African Loots Bosman have also been roped in for the inaugural edition of the IPL Twenty20 championship, which has already contracted 29 players from New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies.

To date, 44 players have signed up for the tournament which will feature 56 league games plus two semifinals and a final when it kicks off in mid-April next year.

IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi expressed satisfaction. “I am sure the cricket-loving public of India would cherish the opportunity to see the World champions turn out for their local teams. The induction of prodigious Aussie talent will add a whole new dimension to the cricket that is played in the Indian Premier League,” he said.