It was promising and it was lucrative; yet it took the professional cricketers nowhere fort two long years, thanks to open hostility from the BCCI. It even used its clout in the ICC to induce the cricket boards of other countries in doing the same with their cricketers, who had joined the rebel league. One after another, all the ICL players are now snapping their ties with the rebel league to play international cricket once again and the respective boards are making it easier with the offer of amnesty program for the rebel cricketers. While in India as many as forty cricketers were reported to apply for the release from ICL, following BCCI’s amnesty offer on April 29, the cricketers in the neighboring countries are also doing the same. Bangladesh ex-skipper, Habibul Bashar is one of them to express his intention of returning to official cricket.

Bashar who captained ICL’s Dhaka Warriors, the only foreign team in the league apart from the Lahore Badshahs, conveyed his intention to BCB. “Bashar has written to the BCB president that he wants to come back. We are happy to welcome him back once it is confirmed that he has severed all ties with the ICL,” Mohammad Jalal Yunus, a BCB board member, said.

Last year, BCB had slapped 10-year bans in its players that joined ICL. These players included such international cricket stars as Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Dhiman Ghosh and Mosharraf Hossain, in addition of Bashar. However, BCB switched to a softer stance latter and decided to allow the rebel cricketers to participate in domestic cricket, subject to the termination of their contracts with ICL by June 15. It also said that these players will be considered for international selection from December 31, 2009.

Bashar’s return is definitely a gain for BCB, which hopes that more players will soon follow the suit of their former captain.  “We hope that more Bangladesh players will now return to the official fold. We want them to return. Our doors are open and we will welcome them back. As far as Bashar is concerned, he will first have to prove his match-fitness and perform in domestic cricket before he is considered for the national team,” Yunus said.

On the other side of the border it is the turn of Hemang Badani, who has played four Tests and 40 ODIs for India, to say good bye to ICL. Clearly he is planning to avail BCCI’s amnesty offer in order to make a come back to the mainstream cricket. Earlier the cricketer told the cricket news media that it is the little quantity of cricket that he gets to play as an ICL cricketer, makes him dissatisfied. “Having been used to playing cricket almost around the year, this seemed too little. The quality was very good, but the quantity wasn’t enough,” he had said.

And there are a number of cricketers, who share the opinion of Badani. With BCCI extending the deadline for the offer of amnesty till May 31, more Indian cricketers are likely to apply for NOC from Indian Cricket League.

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

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