The Indian Cricket League (ICL) may well be the poorer, less glamorous cousin of the Indian Premier League (IPL), it may be the rebel league, it may be the step child of international cricket, but also now its very existence seems to be in jeopardy. Spare a thought for those players who are part of the league for all those others who hitched their wagon to this what they thought to be a star and which did not quite live up to expectation.  This editorial seeks to do a special review of the ICL, its future and its very existence.

If one argued that the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned the Indian Cricket League and players of the ‘rebel’ league at the behest of the loaded and all powerful Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), who was acting out of pique and sheer bloody mindedness, they would not be far wrong.

What fault is this of the players who joined the ICL that they have been banned, labeled ‘rebel’ barred from playing on behalf of their country? They wanted to play cricket, they admittedly wanted a share of the extremely lucrative cricket pie and they chose one league instead of the other. This is as true about those that went along with the IPL. Such a choice may owe itself as much to chance as deliberate selection. Must they be penalized for a selection such as this? And what skin is it off the collective noses of the BCCI and the ICC that they continue to maintain this obdurate position, continuing to marginalize and penalize the Indian Cricket League?

Perhaps at first they thought the ICL would be a threat to and would eclipse the Indian Premier League; last year showed that it was not so, so why carry forward the hostility; the vengefulness? News has it that the payments of the players of the Indian Cricket League have been frozen, that the very structure of the ICL may collapse. Is it not then a time to be munificent, to be forgiving?

There is some encouraging news emerging from the ICC quarter, with a crucial meeting scheduled for next week in Johannesburg where representatives of the BCCI, ICC and the ICL will attempt to hammer out a compromise or agreement whereby the future of the Indian Cricket League and associated players will not be under threat.

There is enough places for cricket leagues including Indian Cricket League, Indian Premier League and more, why must we have one or the other?

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

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