Media Barron Subhash Chandra was never satisfied over how the things turned out regarding his bids for television rights for various cricket tournaments and it frustrated him to the hilt that it was always the foreign owned channels like ESPN or Global Cricket Corporation that went away with the meaty television rights. Even Sony or Nimbus bagged some of the deals, but not Zee.  In a bid to create a big cricket event for himself, Subhash Chandra created the Indian Cricket League. However things did not turn out as he possibly has envisioned---it failed to take BCCI establishment in its fold. Instead it thrown a new challenge before the cash rich cricket board; that itself was in the way of launching another Twenty-20 tournament .

The BCCI chief Lalit Modi realized his dream in late 2007 through the launching of Indian Premier League , consisting of eight teams based in eight different parts of India.

Indian Cricket League was the forerunner of Indian Premier League in many ways. Founded in 2007, by Zee television group with the big dream and a big money $US25 million---it failed to surpass the hype that IPL was able to create. It was an attempt to channelize the huge potentials of cricket into the sports channel owned by Subhash Chandra. In addition to India, UK, Africa, Middle East and other parts of Asia’s markets had also been targeted. Expensive International cricket stars mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh were bought and were introduced to India’s domestic tournament for the first time.

At the very beginning Subhash Chandra made it clear that by creating ICL, he is not going to enter into some sort of conflict with BCCI. But he wanted his league to become “complementary to it.” But BCCI never seemed to pay any heed to his words. The immediate consequence was the banning of some 150 Indian Cricket League players from representing their respective countries in international cricket. It also made the other cricket boards to do exactly the same on the logic that ICL was not sanctioned by the International Cricket Council, the global guardian of the game.

However ICC is willing to clear off the stalemate and the calling of the meeting in Johannesburg is a clear indication of that. Last December there was a round of talks between ICC president David Morgan, Vice President Sharad Pawar, CEO Haroon Lorgat and Indian Cricket League owner Subhash Chandra. “I hope we might be successful in coming to a mutually acceptable conclusion. I can’t be certain that will be the case but I hope we can at least make a start in bringing about a settlement,”--- Morgan was quoted saying in an ICC statement. Chandra on the other hand looks forward to a cooperative approach from BCCI and hopes that the cricket board would lift the Indian domestic ban on his players.

The world of cricket is waiting with batted breath to see the outcome of Johannesburg meeting---it is to be seen whether ICL can add value to its other T-20 sibling Indian Premier League.

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

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