THE butterflies in the stomach will be fluttering more than normal this weekend and Safyaan Sharif doesn’t even have a game.

The Scotland fast bowler will be one of 590 players from all around the world anxiously refreshing their social media feeds as the auction for the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) unfolds over two tension-laden days.

Sharif is one of two Scots – Brad Wheal the other – who have made it this far and must now wait to see whether any of the 10 teams are willing to meet his asking price of around £20,000 and add him to their squad for the latest instalment of the most lucrative and high-profile T20 tournament in the world.

Unlike many of the drafts in North American sport, Sharif insists there has been no prior contact or tapping-up ahead of the auction meaning he is as much in the dark as everyone else before the Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and the rest start to select their chosen players.

“I’ve been lucky just to reach to this point as it’s quite hard to get into the auction itself,” he says. “I’ve been following the IPL closely since it started and it’s always great to watch some of the best players in the world to see how they get on.

“I just have to keep my fingers crossed now that I’ll get the chance to play in it myself this year. We don’t get any kinds of advance notice on how it might go. It’s just basically what happens over the weekend.

“I’m sure my agent will get in touch with me if it’s good news or I’ll see it myself on the IPL pages on Facebook and Twitter. I’ll be refreshing it a lot!

“I’m not hugely getting my hopes up that I’ll definitely get picked as it’s impossible to know how it will go but I feel that I’ve been playing well and have a good a chance now as any.”

The 30 year-old goes into the auction with his stock high following his and Scotland’s performances at the T20 World Cup late last year, in the first round in particular.

Sharif’s personal highlight was taking the wicket of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson but he hopes the experience overall will serve the team well when they head to Australia for this year’s tournament having already secured their spot.

“I feel that my game progressed a lot at the World Cup,” he adds. “It’s usually hard for Associate teams to get a lot of exposure so having all the games live on TV definitely helped too.

“The whole world was watching Scotland and we rose to the challenge by making it through to the Super 12s. I felt it went well for me and I had a decent tournament and getting Kane Williamson out was a real special moment – it wasn’t the best of balls but it did the job!

“As a team we maybe didn’t show as much as we should have once we got past the first round. We had plenty left in the tank but let ourselves down a bit. We didn’t score as many runs as we needed, although we came close in a couple of games to getting over the line.

“Against the top sides in the world like India and Pakistan you have to be consistent in both halves of the game and we couldn’t do that. But it was all valuable experience and we’ll be in better shape when we go to Australia later in the year for the next one.”

Scotland have a hectic year ahead on the field – plans are afoot to bring New Zealand to the Grange in the summer – but off the field there are significant moves being made, too.

Sportscotland has begun its independent review into racism in Scottish cricket and Huddersfield-born Sharif hopes it will lead to more enlightened attitudes upon its conclusion.

“Personally I’ve not suffered any direct racism in my career from junior level up to playing for Scotland,” he adds. “But I do know that there are areas that can be worked on and you hear stories from club cricket where Asians have had to deal with certain things and that’s not acceptable.

“So this is an important review to get these things sorted and hopefully make Scottish cricket a level playing field for everyone.

“I hope people will come to better understand different cultures and ethnicities and how things operate. Coming from a Muslim background, for example, there might be a few things that I don’t like or don’t want to do so hopefully by the end of the review there is a better understanding of what those differences are.

“I believe there’s a plan in place for the players to be approached to give their thoughts to the review and I’d be more than happy to do that.