BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards will definitely be playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League which will be staged later this month in South Africa.

But Chairman of the West Indies selectors Clyde Butts indicated on Monday that Gayle and Edwards will link up with the Caribbean side on the tour of England, following brief stints with the their franchises in the IPL.

“We have named 17 players because we have got a couple of our players going off to play in the IPL,” said Butts when he announced the squad. “Gayle and Edwards will travel to the IPL and will join the squad just before the first Test.”

There were concerns that the best players would not have been available for the tour, after some of them – including Gayle and Edwards – signed deals to appear in the IPL. One of the complaints which the players raised in their recent dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board was the ruling body’s unilateral decision to stage the tour which was organised last October without their consultation and would be contested in direct conflict with the IPL.

The series was arranged bilaterally between the WICB and the England & Wales Cricket Board, following the withdrawal of Sri Lanka – whose players demanded that they be allowed to play in the IPL.

West Indies open the tour with a three-day match against Leicestershire at Grace Road starting on April 21, just three days after the IPL launches in South Africa, with the first Test scheduled for Lord’s from May 6.

Gayle, who will play for the Kolkata Knight Riders, and Edwards, for the Deccan Chargers, are set to arrive in England no later than May 1, restricting their IPL availability to just 12 days.