While the Indian Premier League is enjoying success that is nothing short of spectacular, the so called rebel league, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) is languishing in uncertainty and has been hit by the economic recession in no uncertain terms. This Cricket360 editorial does a special review to compare and contrast the two cricket leagues; IPL and ICL.

While we are all looking forward to the second round of IPL matches in April of this year, the news coming from the ICL camp is that the ICL tournament would not be held in March as earlier envisaged. Former Australia players Michael Kasprowicz, Jimmy Maher, Ian Harvey, Stuart Law, Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn who are part of the ICL were informed by email this week that the ICL's March tournament would not take place. It has been called off now due to financial and other constraints and there is an emphatic statement issued that the tournament will be held later this year.

Dean Jones, former Australian batsman is an ICL board member, and was quoted in the news as saying, "The financial crisis played a part. But the ICL will be played later in the year – I'm very confident of that." While he conceded that the financial crisis was one of the spoilers, he also said that the officials did not want the tournament to clash with the Indian tour of New Zealand.

In the face of financial difficulties and dwindling ad revenues, to say nothing of the inimical stance of the BCCI and ICC regarding the ICL, Subhash Chandra founder and chairman of the ICL is said to be looking to arrive at some kind of arrangement with the ICC and the BCCI so that they drop their opposition to the ICL.

Its isn’t just the players who will be affected by the fortunes of the ICL, it is also the umpiring fraternity of England who are looking forward to a lucrative association with the ICL and will be disappointed if the ICL tournament does not go ahead.

So at present the fortunes of the ICL, seen by many as the poor cousin of the glamorous Indian Premier League are rather iffy, and Cricket360 wonders if the league will survive the storm.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: