ICC rights a wrong

Last July, the ICC wrongly decided that the Oval test of 2006 was a draw. Barely 6 months later, yesterday, the ICC has announced that the original result would stand, i.e. England won the game.

It does seem bizarre that the same organization came to different conclusions. How likely is it that David Morgan, as the ICC President, had his way in return for Sharad Pawar having his way over the ICL being declared 'authorized' cricket?

Instead, the ICC has now left it to individual boards to decide if a game or tournament in its territory was approved or disapproved. What this means is that New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh (the 3 countries mainly impacted by the ICL exodus) can have their players back, but the BCCI will continue to ban ICL players from playing in BCCI-conducted tournaments (& thus be ineligible for national or other representative selection)

Pakistan has been ruled out as the host of the 2009 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy and the new venue will only be decided in April. After the terror attacks in Mumbai in November, India cancelled its tour of Pakistan. Now, Pakistan has responded by barring Pakistani players from playing in the IPL. There's nothing wrong with that. A country has the right (& duty!) to assess threat perception and act accordingly.

But now, we're left with 2 countries being ruled out from hosting the tournament - Pakistan because of the ICC's decision yesterday and India because Pakistani players won't turn up. There's talk of Sri Lanka hosting the tournament, currently scheduled for September-October 2009. But consider that Colombo, the main cricketing centre there with three international grounds, typically has heavy rainfall from end-September all the way till November. The only international cricket venue which will be unaffected by the monsoon is Dambulla, in the centre of the country. Can the pitch handle 15 matches in a span of 17 days? I suspect not!

Do us all a favour - just scrap it!

Labels: 2009 champions trophy, ball tampering, champions trophy, icc, indian cricket league, oval 2006, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:47 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Mohammad Yousuf joins the ICL, but had he ever gone away?

A little over a year after speculation began that Mohammad Yousuf had joined the Indian Cricket League, he confirmed the news in a press conference yesterday.

Yousuf and the ICL go back a fair distance. First, he joined the ICL. Then, faced with the possibility of the PCB banning him, he backed out and wanted to join the Indian Premier League. After that, he was dragged to court by the ICL since he had obviously reneged on a contractual obligation.

Then, he couldn't play in the IPL tournament earlier this year since the ICL folks correctly reckoned that he would be breaching the contractual obligation if he played in that tournament. Meanwhile, since he had informed the PCB that he was no longer associated with the ICL, he was picked for series against South Africa and India where he failed in the tests but did very well in the ODIs.

Despite the PCB fighting his case against the ICL on his behalf, he has now opted to join the ICL, barely a day after being named in an ODI squad against the West Indies. The Pakistan Cricket Board has obviously banned him now.

In other news, a Lahore court lifted the life ban on Saleem Malik imposed as a result of the Justice Qayyum investigation into the match fixing controversy. Once that was out of the way, he declared that he had been offered the post of the head coach of the National Cricket Academy, which the PCB denied.

Meanwhile, when he came to know about Malik's claim, Rashid Latif promptly resigned, and as is expected with Pakistan cricket, reversed his decision within a day.

Pakistan cricket could be going through a very tough phase potentially lasting a year at least! The national side is ranked six in tests and ODIs. There's no cricket scheduled in Pakistan for the foreseeable future aside from the series against India.

There was a change in the PCB administration following the presidential election. There has been a change in the coach before the tenure ended (Intikhab Alam replacing Geoff Lawson). The current captain is being pilloried by everyone, and not everyone in the cricketing circles is convinced he can hold his place in the test side. Two of their stalwart bowlers, Mushtaq Ahmed & Waqar Younis, have been lured away for coaching positions with the ECB.

Labels: indian cricket league, mohammad yousuf, pakistan, saleem malik, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:50 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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ICC Champions Trophy in Sep-Oct 2009, but where?

At the ICC Board meeting, there were quite a few decisions which would have a short-term and long-term impact on the game.

On the first day, the ICC decided that the BCCI would meet representatives from the Indian Cricket League. This was a result of the ICL folks meeting ICC President David Morgan a couple of weeks ago. The ICC is no doubt serious about a rapprochement with the ICL after the way several Bangladesh players signed up for the ICL last month.

It is in the interest of cricket players and administrators that the BCCI and the ICL arrive at a solution in a reasonable timeframe. While I hope that it can be sorted out by the end of the year, I don't think things will move that fast. The ICL's new season has just started. Zee has invested far too much in the venture to agree to an abrupt end. My guess is that over the next year, negotiations will result in the ICL disbanding and players being allowed to first represent their domestic teams and then a year or so after that, become eligible to be picked for national duty. Will it result in the likes of some obviously talented blokes like Rayudu, Jhunjhunwala, TP Singh, Sathish or Shalabh Srivastava getting picked, or will the youngsters who've played in BCCI authorized tournaments be given priority?

The umpire decision review system will be trialled in four more important series (NZ v WI, Ind v Pak, WI v Eng & RSA v Aus) over the next 6 months. That's a good idea, except that the system as it existed in Sri Lanka should be fine tuned a little bit and then trialled. There are some obvious flaws, and it doesn't make sense to persist with them when series are at stake. In addition, I wonder why the ICC didn't think of trialling the system in ODIs and T20 games. After all, in those shorter forms, the chance of a wrong umpiring decision having an irreversible impact on the result of the match is so much higher.

In order to target having cricket included in the 2020 Olympic Games (venue to be decided in 2013), there would be further research done. It is worth noting that cricket wasn't included in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, but will be included at Guangzhou in 2010. The list of events for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games is not yet published. Cricket wasn't part of the agenda at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Even more farcically, it isn't part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi because in 2005, the BCCI decided that it wasn't in favour of Twenty20 being included at the games. Was that a missed moment or what?!

The ICC Future Tours Programme is all set to be disbanded with effect from May 2012, as if anyone cares about it anymore!

On the second day, the ICC decided that the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy, which had been moved to 2009 a couple of months ago, would be held between September and October 2009. However, it would only last 12 days and would be held in one city (as against 17 days and 2 cities). The final decision on if the event would be held in Pakistan would be made after India's tour of Pakistan in early 2009.

So let's see how this could go. In Feb 2009, after India's tour, the ICC could decide that it was safe enough to conduct the tournament in Pakistan. But there would still be 7-8 more months to go before the start of the event. Countries could develop cold feet in that time gap, for real and imaginary reasons. So what would the ICC do then? The best option would have been to move the 2008 2009 next edition out of Pakistan, perhaps to West Indies (the 2010 hosts) and allot the 2010 event to Pakistan. By 2010, the concept of the ICC Champions Trophy would be gone anyway!

Labels: 2009 champions trophy, champions trophy, icc, indian cricket league, olympics, reviews, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:56 am | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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ICL, IPL, Bangladesh cricket and a BCCI website!

A fortnight or so ago, six Bangladesh cricketers sent in their resignation letters to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, to join the Indian Cricket League and play as a team called the 'Dhaka Warriors'.

The board responded by banning them for 10 years. But it was pretty obvious that Bangladesh cricket was in serious shit. Big brother, the BCCI, stepped in to help out. How did the BCCI help? It offered to include more Bangladesh players in the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League and a Bangladesh team in the 2010 Twenty20 Champions League.

The BCCI's decision is so ridiculous. The Bangladesh Cricket Board does not benefit when its players play in the IPL, or the Champions League. The players do. At this point in time, no cricket board gets any payment for releasing its contracted players for the IPL.

Perhaps the better option for the BCB would have been to get the BCCI to agree to a rapidly scheduled home-and-away test & ODI series. Bangladesh was to have played tests in India in April 2005. That then got postponed, so often, that no-one seriously expects it to materialize.

In a path-breaking, breathtaking and least-anticipated development last week, the BCCI launched its website (www.bcci.tv) over a decade ahead of schedule. One of the first few decisions taken by the outgoing BCCI President, Mr. Sharad Pawar, was to target a 2020 launch of the BCCI's own website.

It's perhaps apt to mention though that during the 2006 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, you could buy tickets on www.bcci.tv. After that tournament, the site lay dormant, until it sprung to life over the weekend!

Amazingly enough, it even has RSS feeds for press releases and cricket news!

Labels: bangladesh, bcci, india, indian cricket league, indian premier league, ipl 2009, twenty20, website

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:55 am | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
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A clear-cut case of 'restraint of trade'

The cheap fight between the BCCI and the Indian Cricket League has now plunged to new depths.

The BCCI today announced that India's contracted players would not be allowed to play in the English domestic season if the side they were representing had ICL players in it.

The ECB had initially followed the BCCI's diktat and banned ICL players from playing in the English domestic season. But just over 2 months ago, three South African players won an appeal and they were ruled eligible to play for their counties. The ECB's requirement was that players' home national cricket boards provide permission in the form of a 'No Objection Certificate'. Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp & Johan van der Wath did not get the NOC and were not allowed to register.

In the case that Kerry Packer filed against the ICC and TCCB in 1977, Justice Slade ruled in favour of Kerry Packer & his motley crew. He said "A professional cricketer needs to make his living as much as any other professional man."

In the light of that judgement, it seems to me that preventing Piyush Chawla, Ajit Agarkar and VVS Laxman from playing for county sides just because those sides have ICL players in them is a clear-cut case of 'restraint of trade'. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says (Article 23) "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment."

I really hope someone forces the BCCI to quit the hallucination drugs and get back to reality. Today, cricketers are stopped from playing for other teams because those teams have ICL players. Tomorrow, will they be asked to stop staying in touch with those friends who've played in the ICL? After that, will the records of the ICL players be deleted?

If you do have an opinion, leave a comment and also vote in the poll.

Labels: bcci, ecb, indian cricket league, restraint of trade, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:29 am | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
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Thoughts on the IPL - Part 1

The Indian Premier League got underway last week. While I haven't been able to watch games in their entirety, I've been able to watch some significant portions, which included some brilliant performances.

I think the jury is still out on whether spectators (and TV audiences) will root for a specific city-based team. There're only 8 cities (and states) represented. So which team does a cricket fan in Kerala support? Will he/she go for the team with the maximum number of Malayalis? What about folks in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh? I'd come close to having dual allegiance, to the Chennai Super Kings and the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Yet, I find it hard to support only these teams and none else. Maybe there're several other people like me, who're more than happy to enjoy every game (as long as it is rivetting stuff), regardless of the teams in action.

I'd anticipated that Hyderabad, Delhi and Punjab would be the 3 teams to beat, but turns out that Hyderabad's bowling resources are pretty scarce & unidimensional and Punjab isn't firing either. It's not as though the points table will continue to remain the way it is. There're bound to be changes as players move in & out and as the squads 'gel' better.

In contrast to a lot of people who're hopping mad about this format of the game and the blurring line between sport and entertainment, I find it hard to be condescending of Twenty20! If anything, I am quite excited about it. I'm more than willing to give it a chance, including the cheer-leaders and film star appearances. I don't expect the film stars to turn out for every single game their team features in.

Yes, there're definite ways to tweak it to make it a more level playing field between bat and ball, but that's a problem that exists in the 50-over format anyway. On this blog, we've touched on some suggestions earlier: Allowing only 6 players to bat in Twenty20 games (Steve Waugh said the same thing!) and increasing the per-bowler overs limit to 15 in ODIs or encourage wicket taking by allowing one extra over per wicket taken. Most of the ICC's rules are batsmen-oriented. Besides, what's the big deal about 11 players/batsmen or artificial stuff like 4 (or 10) overs per bowler?

The one thing I've figured out over the past 2+ decades of following cricket, especially over the last decade, is that if you don't respect a form of the game, you're unlikely to do well in that format. England's administrators, selectors and players kept disrespecting one-day internationals and they've more than paid the price. As Scyld Berry points out in his Editor's Notes in the 2008 edition of the Wisden Almanack, other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, England are the only Test-playing country never to have won a global one-day tournament.

The beauty of following a tournament like the IPL is watching McCullum or Sehwag play some jaw-droppingly astonishing shots, Pollock plugging away ad nauseum ad infinitum, McGrath bowl a bouncer to Symonds after Symonds smacked him over mid-wicket, Warne showing us that he's still good enough to make it to the Australian team, Asif & McGrath combining for a seam-bowling master-class, etc.

There's also the beauty of seeing people like Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Venugopala Rao, Sreesanth, etc. more or less appear like fish out of water in this format. I just don't understand how someone like Laxman can captain a Twenty20 side which has Afridi, Symonds, Gilchrist and Gibbs in it! If he weren't captain, his name would never be in a squad of 20!

The other thing that has struck me is the quality of the fielding, especially from the Indians in the tournament. The likes of RP Singh, Munaf, Kumble, etc. are always going to look stupid, but as was the case with the Indian Cricket League, a lot of the Indian players (who haven't yet turned out in internationals) have fielded much better than I'd expected. Perhaps the contributing factors were the support staff made available to the teams and the peer-pressure that comes with fielding alongside Ponting, Symonds, Gibbs, Afridi, de Villiers, Dilshan, Yuvraj, Kaif, Raina, Rohit Sharma, etc.

To me, there's no doubt that the IPL will be successful. What the BCCI and ICC need to do are:

• Revoke the ban on the ICL and recognize that tournament.
  
• Encourage team strategies to focus on ensuring that local players who've never played internationals (or haven't played enough of them) take upon themselves more responsibility. There are foreign players in the English county cricket system as well. The idea is that the domestic players don't just assume that the star recruit will do the job, because there maybe a few games where the star player is unavailable!
  
• I haven't yet watched the games from the stadium, but it'd be awesome if the in-stadium facilities like food, drinks, toilets, seats, etc. were revamped totally to make the stadiums far more spectator-friendly than they are right now. Since the franchisees get a share of (or all of) the gate revenue, they really have an incentive to encourage more people to watch the games from the stadiums.
  
• Figure out how on earth Sunil Gavaskar managed to get onto the SET MAX commentary team!

Labels: icc, india, indian cricket league, indian premier league, ipl 2008, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:26 pm | Sledge/Read 3 sledge(s)
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Shoaib Akhtar banned for five years

In a dramatic decision, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Shoaib Akhtar had been banned for 5 years for violating the players' code of conduct, a document that I'm unable to locate on the PCB website.

As per the ICC code of conduct, a ban of 2-5 years is imposed on a player in the following situations:

• Betting on a game/series where the player/his team was a participant.
  
• Tried to sweet-talk someone else into betting.
  
• Gambled on a game/event.
  
• Tried to sweet-talk someone else into gambling.
  
• Received money/benefit/rewards for providing weather, team and pitch information.
  
• Received money/benefit/rewards and thus brought the game into disrepute.
  
• Provided money/benefit/rewards and thus brought the game into disrepute.
  
• Was approached to bet/gamble/provide information but didn't disclose the event to designated staff.
  
• Is aware of another player doing so but didn't report to the designated staff.

Was Shoaib's offense more severe than the above? Now, he cannot play for Pakistan or in Pakistan. Does this mean he will stick to the IPL? His fee is $425,000. Given the number of times he gets injured, he is unlikely to earn that full amount.

Perhaps the ICL is a better prospect, especially for a guaranteed income. In addition, the IPL is played in a very limited period of time (April-May). If Akhtar wants to play cricket for a longer duration, the ICL is a better place to display his wares.

Labels: akhtar, ban, indian cricket league, indian premier league, ipl 2008, pakistan, shoaib, shoaib akhtar, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:07 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Jason Gillespie retires to play in the ICL

Jason Gillespie today announced his retirement from first-class cricket in Australia. He will be signing up for the Indian Cricket League.

Gillespie was dropped from the Ashes-losing Australian side in 2005, but he made a mini-comeback when he was picked against Bangladesh. He then scored a double century against them at Chittagong, on his birthday, which is very likely to remain the highest score by a nightwatchman for a very long time!

While he did pick up 8 cheap wickets in the series, he was never recalled to the side.

Here's the stat question: Is Gillespie's 201 the second highest score made by a batsman in his last test? I know for a fact that Ponsford scored over 250 in his last test.

Labels: australia, book cricket, gillespie, indian cricket league, retire, statistic, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:32 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Crisis time for cricket?

It doesn't seem like a great time to be a cricket administrator, especially if you aren't an Indian cricket administrator. I'd say this is a pretty testing time for cricket and I really hope the powers-that-be recognize it and fix the real problems.

New Zealand cricket could really do with some help. Shane Bond's NZ Cricket contract was terminated since he wanted to play in the Indian Cricket League. Scott Styris retired from test cricket to focus on playing limited overs cricket. He'd only played 8 tests in the last 3 years, compared to 49 ODIs and 13 Twenty20 games in that same period. I just don't understand exactly how playing 3 tests a year stressed him out. Most other players play between 8 and 12 tests a year on an average! Stephen Fleming may retire from test cricket less than a year after retiring from ODIs after the 2007 World Cup. A whole bunch of Pakistani cricketers, including Mohammad Sami and Naved-ul-Hasan Rana, have joined the ICL.

Update on 14 Feb: Stephen Fleming has confirmed that he will retire after New Zealand's upcoming test series against England.

The Indian Cricket League isn't the only reason why players are retiring. The Indian Premier League (website) is also likely to result in several cricketers in the twilight of their careers retiring to earn a lot of money for a few weeks of effort. Adam Gilchrist is possibly only the first of a long list. Australia's star players are at loggerheads with their cricket board over potential sponsor clashes in the Indian Premier League. Simon Taufel is indicating that he may not renew his umpiring contract with the ICC. Given the umpiring cock-ups we've seen recently and the number of umpires available/eligible, this is a huge problem for the ICC. I'm fairly sure quite a few English county sides are worried as well, since the star overseas players they have signed up, at huge costs, would miss a few weeks of their county commitments to play in the IPL. There was a suggestion by an administrator (possibly from the IPL committee) that the ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP) could be changed to accomodate IPL tournaments.

But is it fair to assume that the BCCI is the only one which will be sitting pretty? I'm not so sure about it. As various commentators have observed, given the amount of money the franchise owners have pumped in, they will eventually demand that their players be more frequently available to them. Even if they agree to priority being given for international cricket commitments, the owners could insist that the players join the teams late and play IPL games instead of playing in warm-up games. Alternately, they could insist that players play for their IPL sides when they're rested or in-between tours. Will the IPL cannibalize the BCCI's domestic cricket tournaments? Eventually, could the IPL cannibalize international cricket per se to the extent that players will opt for the IPL over an international tour?

So what are the problems here?

• Availability of players: The IPL may insist, eventually when it is successful, that players need to spend more time playing their league rather than international cricket. Can cricket boards make it very clear to the IPL and the franchisees that their contracted players will be available only if they are fit and there are no international or domestic commitments? They may allow players who are dropped to participate in the IPL. Hence this implies that the board's international commitments and domestic cricket tournaments take precedence over the IPL tournaments.
  
• Players retiring to play in the IPL: Once a player retires from international cricket, they are no longer contracted to the cricket board. Hence the board cannot bar a player from playing in the IPL. At most, if the player is still playing domestic cricket, then his state association can do something about it.
  
• Umpires causing the same problems as players: Like Taufel is possibly hinting, he could join the IPL at the expense of his international umpiring career. Also, umpires could opt to umpire IPL games rather than tests or ODIs.
  
• Player/Umpire contracts being terminated since they want to be part of the ICL: This potentially results in a dwindling player/umpire pool for the cricket board since the current ICC policy is that the ICL is an unauthorized tournament.

Labels: australia, bcci, bond, book cricket, fleming, icc, india, indian cricket league, indian premier league, ipl 2008, new zealand, retire, stephen fleming, styris, taufel, twenty20, umpires

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:00 pm | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
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Darren Lehmann retires

Darren Lehmann announced his retirement from first-class cricket today.

He is one of two chaps to have hit the winning runs in a World Cup final, and most likely the only one to have authored the final act in two finals. He hit the winning runs in 1999 and caught Zaheer Khan, India's last wicket, in 2003.

Lehmann has not played international cricket since February 2005. He was named Cricketer of the Year in 2004. In 2003, he was banned for five games after screaming out a racist comment which was heard by the Sri Lankan team.

The fact that he announced his retirement from 'first-class cricket' indicates to me that he will, in all likelihood, join the Indian Cricket League or the Indian Premier League or the Universal Book Cricket League.

Labels: australia, book cricket, indian cricket league, indian premier league, lehmann, retire, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:18 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Indian Premier Cricket League?

The race between the Indian Cricket League (their website finally loads up) and the BCCI's Indian Premier League has just started getting more interesting.

The BCCI's league boasts of the "Who's who" of international cricket (primarily current players, with a couple of former stars thrown in). Zee's Indian Cricket League boasts of the "Who was who" and "Who's that" of international and Indian domestic cricket.

The ICL has no access to most of the good cricket grounds in India since the BCCI has leases on/ownership of all of them. So it has to make do with unknown grounds. Ditto with the player roster. The ICL's major problem remains that they do not have a single star Indian player signed up. When Dinesh Mongia has the most internationals in your lineup of Indian players, you do have a serious problem!

The main problem both leagues are going to face is how to squeeze in the tournaments in between the various international commitments. I don't really know if the BCCI has some clue about how the IPL will shape up given that the star players will hardly be available over the next 1.5 years or so. The team owners, rights owners, sponsors, spectators, audiences, etc. will undoubtedly demand that the star players turn up for the IPL when they are not playing for India. The BCCI has just confirmed a triangular one-day series in Bangladesh next May to fill in the gaps.

Some pride will have to be swallowed, but I really don't see any scope for the two leagues co-existing and functioning according to the current hype. The ICL is meant to showcase former stars and wannabes. The IPL is meant to showcase the stars. The ICL doesn't have the sponsors, grounds and audiences, but they have the players who have the time to play. The IPL has the sponsors, grounds and audiences, but they don't have players who can spare the time.

Under these circumstances, perhaps the best option is to merge the two leagues and call it the "Indian Premier Cricket League" and have all games played at the IPCL ground with a lot of sponsorship by Reliance Industries Ltd.

Stop press! Reliable BCCI sources inform me that the BCCI, continuing with its theme of creating ODI series out of thin air, will be arranging for a Twenty20 international at the end of each day of the test matches against Pakistan. The BCCI's reasoning is apparently that since each Twenty20 game only takes up 3 hours and test match days end by 5 pm, there is enough time for a Twenty20 game before the cricketers eat & sleep. Rumours about the BCCI jettisoning the warm-up games in Australia and replacing them with Twenty20 internationals are yet to be confirmed.

Labels: bcci, india, indian cricket league, indian premier league, ipl 2008, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:47 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Craig McMillan retires

Craig McMillan, who once suffered the ignominy of not picked to play against Bangladesh, has just announced his decision to retire from international and domestic cricket.

Does this mean he will sign-up for the Indian Cricket League? Or will he be content playing book cricket?

Labels: book cricket, indian cricket league, mcmillan, new zealand, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:26 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Will Jacques Kallis sign up for the ICL?

Jacques Kallis quit as South Africa's vice-captain a couple of days ago after he was omitted from South Africa's squad for the Twenty20 World Cup.

Clearly miffed at his exclusion, he talked about having a re-think on his future.

Is there a possibility he will be joining the Indian Cricket League? There's news that Yousuf, Razzaq and Farhat have signed up for the ICL.

It could get pretty serious soon. The boards have thus far been happy with threatening to ban/deny benefits for those who join the ICL. But what happens if marquee names, especially ones who haven't retired, join the ICL? The boards will probably need to get into an agreement with the ICL. The ICL clearly indicates that it is willing to use money power to attract top players.

Labels: indian cricket league, kallis, south africa, twenty20, twenty20 world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:52 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Brian Lara is the ICL's first star signing

I thought I had found the Indian Cricket League's website, but neither indiancricketleagueonline.com nor indiancricketleague.com work!

The league has snapped up its first major signing, Brian Lara who quit international cricket after the World Cup game against England.

Watch out for Warne & McGrath signing up as well, going by reports from Australia.

There's no confirmation yet about Inzamam. He was not offered a PCB contract, but has now been called up for fitness trials.

There's an enormous opportunity for the ICL to attract other recently retired cricketers as players. Just look at this list: Nathan Astle, Andy Flower, Michael Bevan, Nicky Boje, Damien Martyn, Chris Cairns, Heath Streak and Graham Thorpe.

The penny drops! The ICL is a book cricket league!

Labels: indian cricket league, lara, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:04 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Inzamam for ICL?

First, there was the news that the Pakistan Cricket Board said that the new 'Indian Cricket League' venture by Subhash Chandra was none of their business.

Then, they announced a 3-tier contracted players list without Inzamam's name in the list. Did they get the wrong Ul-Haq into the list? Misbah-ul-Haq is in while Inzamam is out!

At this point in time, nothing can be ruled out with the PCB. Inzy could still make it back to the side, but if he doesn't, then the lasting image would be his tearful good-bye at the World Cup.

Assuming Inzy doesn't play any more international cricket, the Indian Cricket League seems to be the best option for him (as indeed it seems for Lara, McGrath, Warne, etc.). The PCB's statement on the issue sort of gives the game away. Maybe Inzy asked to be left out so he could play in the ICL?

If some former (Pakistani) cricketer or a player who doesn’t have a contract with the PCB decides to play in the series then we have no way to legally bound him against going to India. However, if any player contracted by us wants to go there then that would be a different case.

In other news, Geoff Lawson is Pakistan's new coach. This really does leave Dav Whatmore really high and dry! I wonder what he's thinking!

Labels: indian cricket league, inzamam, pakistan, twenty20, whatmore

Thus spake Jagadish @ 9:42 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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