Mumbai Indians will be without the services of veteran Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga for at least their first six matches of the Indian Premier League, starting Saturday. Malinga has made himself unavailable for the team's first six matches as he will be participating in Sri Lanka's Super Provincial One-Day domestic tournament, slated from from April 4 to April 11, in a bid to make it to the World cup team.

"I had asked the board for the No-Objection Certificate for me to play in the IPL, and they had said that was fine, but that all players who want to go to the World Cup would need to stay back for the provincial tournament," Malinga told ESPNcricinfo. "So I told them I'd play in the provincial tournament, and I asked the board to inform Mumbai Indians and IPL, since it was their decision. I'm ok with losing those earnings from IPL.