HAMPSHIRE chairman Rod Bransgrove has revealed that the compensation the county will receive for Kevin Pietersen’s involvement in the Indian Premier League is capped.

Pietersen is the most expensive England player on the IPL auction list at a minimum price of $1.35 million (£1.02m) for his three-week availability.

But Hampshire will not be receiving a six- figure sum after the February 6 auction, despite the fact that counties with ECB-contracted IPL players will be compensated by up to ten per cent.

Bransgrove, who negotiated the terms of Dimitri Mascarenhas’s deal with the Rajasthan Royals last year, has described the com pensation agreement as “sensible and adult” following negotiations between the ECB and the Professional Cricketers Association.

But Hampshire will recieve no more than £85,000.

Bransgrove explained: “I’ve seen it described as a donation from KP to us but it’s actually compensation of ten per cent, which is capped at US$120,000 (approx £85,000) and it would have been capped at $60,000 if he had been restricted to play for less than two weeks.”

Although Pietersen is rarely seen in a Hampshire shirt, most of his appearances for the county since making his debut in 2005 have been in the first two months of the season during the group stages of the Friends Provident Trophy – which clashes with this year’s IPL (April 10-May 29).

Bransgrove added: “If England don’t want to play cen trally contracted players they have two options; one is to rest them and the other is to send them back to their county to play for them.

“The England players can’t play for any one else without the permission of the respective counties and I’ve made sure that’s registered.

Pietersen and the rest of the contracted England players who join an IPL franchise will have to return for the first Test of the summer against the West Indies at Lord’s on May 7.