Breather for ICL players

All cricketing boards have decided to lift the ban on the ICL players., news welcomed by the players involved in it..

ICL is an unauthorised T20 cricket tournament that was run by the Essel group in India and BCCI made it a point to de-recognize it immediately... Majority of the Indian domestic talent fell pray to the lucrative offer and decided to dump their state team and gleefuly joined the ICL... ICL, Indian Cricket League, did put up a good show twice with the quality of cricket being on par with any other international series.. The Indian lads performed really well and the foreign players had their say too in the games..

The most affected team by this ICL drain were the West Bengal team.. TP Singh, Sarabjith Singh, R.Sathish,Monish Mishra, Abbas Ali, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala were players who could have easily made it to India.. R.Sathish has been performing well in domestic arena for years now.. Ambati and Jhunjhunwala are good young prospects.. TP Singh is an exciting young left arm fast bowler and Ali murtaza was nominated as the best youngster, the award was un-justifiably cancelled due to his association with ICL.. Well, India are soon to get a bigger pool to pick the players from...

The Board of Control for Cricket in India lifted the ban on players from the Indian Cricket League. The decision was taken at a working committee meeting of the BCCI in Mumbai. The BCCI said players from the ICL will now be available for selection to the Indian team within a year, if they sever ties with the ICL.
BCCI president Shashank Manohar, who chaired the meeting, said the offer of "amnesty" would only be available until May 31."The working committee of the BCCI has taken a decision to grant amnesty to players of the ICL," he said.
"We have given them time till May 31, by which they can sever all their ties with ICL and return to the BCCI fold. We have taken a further decision that those players, as well as support staff associated with the ICL who return to the BCCI, will not be allowed to play international cricket nor will be given an international assignment for a period of one year." Manohar said the reason the amnesty offer was made was because the board had received several indications from players suggesting they want to return to the BCCI.


Pakistan have been very excited about picking the players back in the team though having to comply with the agreement on imposing a penalty of 6-12 months during which the players will not be available for selection for the national team.. The PCB is keen to consider some of the ICL players like Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Yousuf, Rana Naved, Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Sami back into national team..

New Zealand will be more than pleased to welcome back Shane Bond, Daryl Tuffey into their depleted national side, while a few of the ICL players are already a part of the domestic tournament..

Seven South Africans -- Dale Benkenstein, Justin Kemp, Nicky Boje, Johan van der Wath, Nantie Hayward, Lance Klusener and Andrew Hall -- are banned to play domestic and international cricket for them being associating with the ICL.. Hall and Kemp may still hope for a national call..

Does that then spell THE END of the ICL chapter ??

We must be able to take a call on that at the end of this month for sure.. Many who are past their prime or those who would never get a call to their national side may still continue to play the game for it involves better monetary benefits.. The international players who have retired from their international cricket and the old players retired from the domestic tournaments of various countries may still find a liking to the ICL..