It is the position of Kapil, who is associated with the ICL closely as a board member, the basic idea was to promote the game and ICL had no reasons to feel bad about it. He was reported in the cricket news as saying, “Aren't we promoting the game?. That's the bottom line. If we are promoting the game in India, then one should not feel bad. Rather one should feel proud and we are happy about that.”

Over the last weekend a three hour meeting took place between ICC President David Morgan, chief executive Haroon Lorgat, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, chief of the Essel Group, which is bankrolling ICL, Subhash Chandra and its business head Himanshu Mody. It was hoped that this would sort out the problems that the ICL and BCCI had inter se between them, which would in turn lead to the recognition of the hitherto unrecognised ICL which is seen as the ‘rebel’ league. This meeting ended in a stalemate and the parties failed to reach any compromise that would signify a meeting of minds.

The inflexible and obdurate position of the BCCI has earned criticism not just from its very vocal detractor Kapil Dev but also from other quarters for its handling of the participation of Indian players in the practice matches held in New Zealand. Reportedly, the BCCI withdrew the names of Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik from the warm up matches organised by the Kiwis and the Aussies simply because the Kiwi team had one former ICL player in its ranks.  

Australian Cricket Association chief executive Paul Marsh called this a “strange decision, and slightly paranoid." New Zealand cricket association chief Heath Mills was also reported in the cricket news as having said, "To be honest we are really disappointed with the position of the BCCI. I understand the situation with the ICL, but given Hamish is no longer a player with ICL; cricket's the loser on this day. The fans as well as the players were looking forward to this game and obviously everyone misses out. It just seems a bit silly to me.”

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: