End ICL, Take a Franchisee in IPL: BCCI to Subash Chandra

The ICL (Indian Cricket League) cleared the air on the rumours on its future saying that league has not gone bankrupt. It will continue as scheduled.

They agreed on releasing few players to play for their countries, and also confident that the countries will release them to play in ICL after their national duty is over.

"There is no question of being bankrupt. We are committed to holding the ICL," ICL business head Himanshu Mody said in a statement.

He also came out openly on the BCCI's offer to take up a franchisee in IPL rather than continuing the ICL.

"The BCCI has been offering a peace deal to ICL promoter Subhash Chandra asking him to take up a franchise in return for winding up the league, but this is unacceptable to the Zee boss," Mody was quoted as saying.

He furhter said, "We are awaiting the decision on our application to the ICC on giving those playing in the league an official status. If a resolution does not come through at the next ICC Executive Board meeting, we will pursue legal options. Our stated position is that we will take ICC to court in the UK citing precedents--Tony Grieg vs Doug Insole (England) and Kapil Dev and other players vs BCCI in Indian courts."

To a question on releasing the players from ICL, he said, "Yes, we have told some of these players that they can play for their respective countries. We will give them temporary suspension letters for the same. You have to understand that they are far more valuable to us if they continue to represent their countries as well. In any case, one way or the other, the ICC has to take a stand on their status. ICL is keen that these players are allowed to do national duty and then return to play in the ICL. We have no problem with that."

"People are spreading canards about the ICL going belly up and that due to this we are releasing players. This is all nonsense. Yes, we cancelled one event due to 26/11 but that doesn't mean the ICL is defunct. We are looking at two tournaments in October-November, a league in 8-9 cities on the round-robin format followed by the World Series," he said.

I think we should give due credit to ICL without which we wouldn't be enjoying the IPL. Though IPL is much more famous and has lot of moeny than the private ICL, if ICL did not happen, I think there is no IPL as well.

ICL Was Asked to Shut Down: Kapil Dev

After the meeting between BCCI and ICL failed, the ICL committee is thinking about the next course of action. They have sent a letter to ICC asking them to review the situation again during their board meeting as the meeting with BCCI did not go well.

Kapil came out open and said that "BCCI has asked ICL to shut down its Twenty-Twenty League" for starting the discussion. Yes, they asked us close the Indian Cricket League first. Otherwise, they are not ready to start the discussion.

Kapil said, this is not the right approach as he expected possible solutions to be worked out during the meeting. But BCCI wanted the shut down of ICL, which is not fair.

Kapil said, other options does include legal action are considered.

I also feel that BCCI is being unfair to ICL. They are the one who started this T20 cricket which forced BCCI to start competitive IPL. Trying to knock them out is not a solution, because it would defenitly impact lot of young players who can shine for India in the future.

BCCI, please be relaxes and allow the competition. Else, you trying to monopoly the game will ruin you one day! Life is a cycle and you better be expecting a recession in you soon.