Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens has urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to do more to help "free up" English players for the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Stevens (pictured) was included on the IPL auction list for this summer’s Twenty20 event, but was not picked by any of the nine Indian franchises. He was not alone, though, as not a single English player – apart from Kent team-mate Azhar Mahmood who now qualifies as a British cricketer - was picked up in this year’s auction.

Stevens, 35, has made no secret of his desire to play in the lucrative 20-over competition, which starts its fifth edition on April 4, and hopes that his dream will be realised in the near future.

He said: "I’d love to be involved in the IPL, it would be massive, but at the moment it’s about the ECB freeing us up a bit, we’re on such a tight leash at the moment. "Agents can’t get us in because the franchises and the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) just don’t want to work with the ECB. Something has happened along the line that is not freeing us up to go and play over there.

"I think it would be a great experience for junior lads to play against the best in the world and for people like myself, it could lead to other things after cricket."

Stevens showed his pedigree in Twenty20 cricket this winter by helping the Dhaka Gladiators to victory in the Bangladesh Premier League. It was an experience the former Leicestershire man enjoyed and hopes to repeat again next year.

"I got picked up in the auction which I was really pleased about," he said. "There were some fantastic players in the side like Saaed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi but they made a big difference and made the semi-final and the final quite comfortable.

"We had a great unit and it was a brilliant experience and hopefully it could lead to other things; IPL would be awesome and Azhar showed that by doing well in a Twenty20 tournament in New Zealand and the the BPL as well, he got picked in the IPL. Fingers crossed, if I can do well in the next year or so, a couple of years in the IPL would be brilliant."

Stevens, who missed Kent’s 10-day trip to Antigua because of a dislocated finger, has declared himself fit for the club’s opening LV= County Championship game of the season at Yorkshire on Thursday.