Will Indian Cricket League threaten the existence of BCCI? Whatever might happen in future, but now BCCI is on their toes. In a dramatic press conference in Mumbai on Monday, it has named 45 Indian Players and seven foreign players who will play in the breakaway league.
The executive board members and coaches led by former Indian Captain Kapil Dev and legendary off spinner Erapalli Prasanna who was a new face with red shirts took on the stage. But the real excitement was reserved for the black shirts worn by the players recruited in the league led by Test Discards Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Deep Dasgupta and J. P. Yadav. A total of 45 current Indian players have joined the ICL bandwagon.
Kapil Dev appreciated the player by saying “We need these set of people who are ready to make their own life, ready to decide what they want to do without being pushed by somebody, and threatened by somebody”. He even confessed that in their age he was not so courageous.
Kapil Dev not wanting to be painted as a villain and blamed for distracting Team India hasn’t approached anybody who either featured during the ongoing England Series. He said it wouldn’t be proper to contact anybody in the middle of the tour. They will be contacted after they return. He even said that the boys selected for playing for ICL are free to play for India anytime.
According to Himanshu Mody, Project Manager of ICL has announced the signing of foreign players like Inzaman-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat all from Pakistan. South African players Nicky Boje, Lance Klusener and Nantie Hayward are likely to sign the contract soon. Clearly, the ambitious project manager believes they can compete with the BCCI in the market place. Himanshu Mody clearly states that there has to be strength and entertainment in the product and good cricket to watch, which will attract viewers.
They have already recruited Balwinder Singh Sandhu, member of 1983 world cup winning team as head of an academy to be launched by ICL. It is likely that even some of the existing private academies across the country are going to come under ICL umbrella. So what happens next? Will ICL go on to build up a new National Cricket team for India? But whatever may happen in future the announcement has been made and the battle line have been drawn. Now it remain to be seen how well the sponsors and Indian cricketing nation will react to this new entrant.
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