LUCKNOW, June 18 -- The governing council of the UPTwenty20 League, a premier event of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, on Tuesday announced that all pending dues of cricketers as well the support staff of some of the franchises, will be cleared by Wednesday when the mini auction for the third season takes place here in Lucknow. "The governing council meeting of the UPTwenty20 League has decided to clear all the dues of cricketers and the support staff by tomorrow before the mini auction here," Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association's secretary, Arvind Srivastava, said on Tuesday. "I personally took up the issue with all the franchises during the meeting and everyone agreed to clear all the dues by tomorrow," said Srivastava. "We are ready to conduct the league in a free and fair manner," he added. In its June 12 edition, Hindustan Times had carried the story, "Players, staff ready to call it quits as franchises drag heels over clearing dues", following which the UPCA bosses took up the issue with the 'defaulters'. The governing council's decision on Tuesday left players and the support staff of a few teams, happy as now they can hope of getting their money on Wednesday before the start of the mini auction. "It's great for all of us as we have been struggling for our payments ever since the second edition took place in August-September last here in Lucknow," said a former Ranji Trophy cricketer, who was associated with a franchise as a senior support staff. However, he said that he was so upset with the delay of the payments by one of the key franchises that he chose to join a different franchise for the new season. "I will be getting my dues tomorrow as promised in the governing council's meeting today, but I quit the side in advance and joined another side for the new season," he said on conditions of anonymity. A senior cricketer of the state Ranji Trophy team too said that even before Tuesday's decision, he had left a particular franchise. "I know how important money is for me. I tried my best to talk to my old franchise for the payment, but every time I was given a new date of payment, but was never made till today," he said, adding, "Still don't believe that my old franchise will clear my dues tomorrow and that's why I changed my team this time." Technically, the last date for clearing dues of players and support staff was Mar 31, 2025. As far as the mini auction for the third edition of the UPT20 League is concerned, in all 170 cricketers, including a few notable names like Abhishek Goswami, Almas Shaukat, Ansh Yadav, Mohd Saif, Prince Yadav, Kartikey Singh, Upendra Yadav, Atal Bihari Rai, Bhavya Goyal, Shanu Saini and Ajai Singh etc., will go under the hammer on Wednesday when the six franchises like Noida Kings, Gorakhpur Lions, Kanpur Super Stars, Meerut Mavericks, Lucknow Falcons and Kashi Rudras pick players. Meanwhile, all six franchise have also retained their key players for the new season. "Most of the teams need a few good players as per their requirements and we are expected to see a tough money fight in auction," said an insider of the committee....