India vs Sri Lanka in India, Nov-Dec 2009

Sri Lanka in India Three Test, five ODI and Two T20 match series

Sri Lanka will be looking for the elusive test match and series win when they tour India for a Three Test, five ODI and Two T20 match series from November to December 2009. The team arrive in India on November 8th for the 55-day tour.

Indian Cricket League ICL News

Indian-Cricket-League.com (A Cricket News Site)

The first news and information website on Indian Cricket League
The ICL (India) is a private cricket league that runs parallel to the existing cricket league managed by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The format of ICL is Twenty20.

This website, http://www.indian-cricket-league.com/, (Created on: 03-Apr-2007) is in no way affiliated with or is the property of Zee's ICL (India) or Indian Cricket League (Florida). This site is part of the Cricket Circle information and news network.

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ICL 20s World Series 2008 Schedule

ICL 20s World Series 2008 : Index | News | Schedule | Teams | Results

Indian Cricket League Grand Championship 2008 Schedule

Index | News | Schedule | Teams | Results

Indian Cricket League 2008

Kapil lashes out at BCCI for victimising ICL players

Former captain Kapil Dev today lashed out at India Cricket Board for victimising cricketers who joined Indian Cricket League by treating them as "untouchables".
"I don't understand why the Cricket Board is treating cricketers who joined our ranks as untouchables. We were providing the youngsters an option to cricket and to life. They (the board) are victimiing the cricketers for no fault of theirs (by banning them)," an angry Kapil told reporters here at the launch of second season of ICL. "We are for the betterment of Indian cricket and I always think I am a part of the Cricket Board but why are they trying to monopolise the game. They should have beeen big hearted.
"Moreover, I would never have thought of fighting a case against my own players," he said while referring to court cases between ICL players and their boards. Without naming anybody, Kapil blamed a "particular person" for being victimising ICL players.
"Today, if there is such a victimisation of ICL players it is because of one particular man. I don't need to name him here everybody knows him," he said. "Despite the obstacles to make us small we have grown from strength to strength. We will keep on giving a better platform for youngsters to cricket," added the World Cup winning captain after announcing a new team, Dhaka warriors.
He praised the 13 Bangladeshi players, which included former captain Habibul Bashar, for joining the ICL. "We would encourage them to play for their country. In the free time when they are not playing for their country they can play for ICL. What is wrong in this. If they are banned by their board for joining ICL that is not their (players') fault," said the former captain.

Bangladesh cricketers eye rebel Indian league

Bangladesh's struggling cricket team faced a major threat to its future on Sunday after the head of the sport's governing body said several players would join a rebel Indian Twenty20 league.
Bangladesh Cricket Board director Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu said the players had informed the board about they would take part in the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The ICL, owned by an Indian media giant, is not sanctioned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and players joining the league have been banned by their respective cricket boards.
Lipu said the six cricketers included batsman Aftab Ahmed, wicket-keeper Dhiman Ghosh and bowlers Mohammad Rubel Hossain and Farhad Reza. Ex-Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar and his former deputy Shariar Nafees Ahmed complete the rebel group. "They may face ban from domestic and international cricket," Lipu said.
The country's Bengali daily Prothom Alo said as many as 14 players had lined up to join the new ICL season, which opens on October 10. Former captain and chief selector Faruq Ahmed feared the development would damage the Bangladesh team and threaten its Test status, which was acquired only eight years ago.
"These are the top Bangladesh players. Their joining ICL will weaken the national team, which has already had very bad performance in the last six months," Ahmed said. "I think this is the biggest crisis for Bangladesh cricket since it won Test status."
Ahmed said money played a big part in the decision as a player could make as much as in the rest of his career by playing in the ICL for only one month. Bangladesh have had a poor record in Test cricket, winning just once and drawing four out of 53 matches so far.
The national team was routed 3-0 by Australia in a one-day international series this month. New Zealand are due to tour the country next month for a two-Test and three-match one-day series.

ICL 20s World Series 2008

India XI win ICL 20s World Series

ICL India defeated ICL World by ten runs in the inaugural edition of ICL 20s World Series Championship at Hyderabad.
G Vignesh was declared the man of the match. Ibrahim Khaleel was declared the man of the series for his brilliant performance as wicket-keeper cum batsman through out the ICL 20s World Series.
Winning the toss, R Sathish elected to bat. The Indians opened with their tested combination of Vignesh and Khaleel. The opening bowlers for the World side came out firing all cylinders and at the end of the first two overs, the scorecard read only one solitary run for no loss. The young openers soon got into the groove and at the end of the fifth over, the Indians were back on track at 27 for no loss. They soon started taking their chances and the partnership was worth 45 runs at the end of the seventh over.
The explosive opening partnership worth 76 was finally broken by Elliott in the tenth over, getting the wicket of Khaleel for a well made 34. The 100 of the Indian innings came up with a big six by Vignesh in the 13th over, which also brought about his explosive 50 off only 36 balls, including five fours and three sixes.
Chandana got the big wicket of Vignesh trapping him leg before wicket for a well made 57. Indians folded their innings at 148 for eight in their allotted 20 overs.

Edelweiss ICL 20s Challenge 2008

Hyderabad Heroes become Edelweiss ICL 20s Challenge champions

In a thrilling second final of the Edelweiss ICL 20s Challenge, Hyderabad Heroes beat Lahore Badshahs in a heart-stopping bowl out to take the title 2-0 the Lal Bahadur Stadium on Sunday. Chris Harris' Heroes had won the first final as well.
With scores tied as Heroes chased Badshahs' total of 130, it came down to the decisive bowl out, which the Heroes won 3-0. While Boje, PIS Reddy and Harris of Heroes hit the target, Rana Naved, Shahid Nariz and Naved Latif of Badshahs missed.
Earlier, Ambati Rayudu's heroics took Heroes close to victory. Needing 23 runs in the last two overs, Rayudu hit a huge six over mid-wicket as Heroes took 12 runs from the penultimate over, delivered by Azhar Mahmood. Heroes were helped by two no-balls in the final over as Rana Naved, who gave only 13 runs in three overs, conceded eight runs in his fourth over. The Heroes were unlucky in the end as they lost their last two wickets to Rana needing just two runs from three balls. At 129/8, Absolom was run out for the fourth ball of the final over. However, the ball was ruled wide and Heroes got one run. PIS Reddy, who stepped in next, was clean bowled by Rana to leave the scores level.
Earlier, P Inder Sekhar Reddy and Stuart Binny restricted Badshahs to 130/9 in 20 overs. While Reddy claimed four wickets for 19 runs, Binny scalped three for nine. Badshahs were off to a flying start before Absolom got the crucial breakthrough when he had Umar caught by Maher. Umar added 34 runs with Nazir for the first wicket in five overs. From being 63/1 at the end of nine overs, the Badshahs suffered four quick blows to be left reeling at 98/6. Reddy started the slide when he removed Nazir for 30. An over later he got the prized wicket, trapping Badshahs captain Inzamam-ul Haq for 5.
Binny joined the party as he struck thrice in quick succession, accounting for Farhat, Latif and Humayun.
However, the big hitting Azhar Mahmood tried to repair the damage by accelerating the run rate when Reddy got into the act again. The Badshahs lost momentum thereafter but managed to add 19 runs in the last two overs.

Indian Cricket League 2007

CS vs CL, ICL, Final: Chennai Superstars win the inaugural ICL T20 tournament

The Chennai Superstars pulled it off when it mattered the most as they won the finals of the inaugural Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20 championship here Sunday evening, beating the local favourites Chandigarh Lions by 12 runs.
The Superstars also took away the winners' prize of Rs.39 million ($1 million). Put into bat by the Lions who won the toss at the Tau Devi Lal cricket stadium, the Superstars put up a score of 155 runs in their 20 overs, losing 8 wickets. Opener Ian Harvey, who has been among runs in this championship, gave them a good start, scoring 36 runs from 31 balls. Captain Stuart Law contributed with a 28-ball 34 runs.
In reply, the Lions kept losing wickets at regular intervals after their opening batsmen Imran Farhat and Hamish Marshall failed to give them a good start. Tejinder Pal Singh put up a fight with 35 runs from 33 balls. He top-scored for the Lions. As the match seemed drifting away from the fold of the Lions, Andrew Hall and Sarabjit Singh put up a fight, scoring 30 not out runs from 27 balls and 28 runs from 18 balls respectively, but failed to finish it off for their team. Skipper Chris Cairns could not do much Sunday, scoring just 5 runs from 10 balls. The Lions could muster 143 runs from their 20 overs, losing 8 wickets.
Player of the Match, former Pakistan bowler Shabbir Ahmed took 4 wickets, including a hat-trick, giving away 23 runs. The Chandigarh Lions ended up runners-up, picking up their cheque of Rs.19 million.

Indian Cricket League - ICL

Zee launches ambitious $232mn Indian Cricket League

In a move effectively challenging the Indian cricket board's national tournaments, Zee Group Tuesday announced the launch of an ambitious Indian Cricket League (ICL) with a corpus fund of Rs 1 billion ($232.26 million) and a promise to field many international players.

Stung by the announcement and in order to stop speculation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) quickly issued a statement that its president Sharad Pawar has received a letter, but said no more.
The announcement came as a surprise also because Zee owns the BCCI rights for overseas international cricket. Zee won the five-year rights for $219.15 million.

"A professional league is the need of the hour as is the killer instinct in the players. We will try to do it as early as possible -- maybe in July," said Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra at a press conference here.
Chandra sounded extremely confident of getting the BCCI approval for ICL, whose winner would receive $1 million - the highest prize money ever announced for a cricket tournament in the country.
"It is not in conflict with the BCCI, but is complimentary to it. We have sent a proposal to the BCCI and I don't think they will reject it. I even don't want to assume that BCCI will reject it," he said.

BCCI, which has already called a working committee meeting in Mumbai Saturday to discuss the World Cup debacle, will perhaps have to add another item to its agenda. The board statement said: "BCCI president Sharad Pawar has received a letter from Mr. Subhash Chandra, Zee Television, seeking permission to start the Indian Cricket League. An appropriate decision in this matter will be taken by the board."
The ambitious league, if allowed by the BCCI, threatens to do what late Australian millionaire Kerry Packer did almost three decades ago when he hired the world's top players for his own World Series Cricket following his fight for television rights with the Australian board. Chandra said that the current Indian team players along with those from other countries would be seen in action in the league. He said the ICL would be an annual feature. All the matches will be telecast on Zee Sports. Zee also plans to set-up residential academies equipped with state-of-the-art facilities across the country.
Sports medicine would be introduced to ensure top fitness of players and a full-fledged record of their behavioural pattern, diet-plan and game statistics would be maintained. The group will also appoint talent scouts in all 35 states to hunt for young players to play in the league. "We have expertise in talent-search in the entertainment field, we will use that same expertise to unearth cricketing talent in India," Chandra said. He said each team would have a coach, physiotherapist, and psychologist. The league will have a professional media manager, and an ombudsman to resolve issues that may be raised by the public, or even by the players.

"A professional league is the need of the hour as is the killer instinct in the players. Budding talent must be groomed at the grass-roots level and given the experience to play on competitive pitches and not on placid tracks." Chandra, however, declined to disclose the names of the players likely to take part. "There are a few big names which we don't want to disclose now." He added that other companies are invited to launch their own clubs or teams and can take part in the league. "We would love participation from other companies as well. They are invited to launch their own teams and take part in the league very similar to what we have in the National Football League," he said.

The Indian Cricket League Format

The Indian Cricket League will consist of six teams or clubs in the first year and will be increased to 16 over the next three years. To start with, all the matches will be Twenty20 affairs and will be played on home-and-away basis. Gradually, the format of the matches will be changed to 50-over a side. The champion team will get the winner's purse of $1 million. Each team in the league will have two Indian international players registered with the BCCI, four foreign players and the rest young and budding players. The players, who will take part in the ICL, will be contracted with the company and will get a fixed amount every month.

The finer points of ICL:

6 teams or clubs to play in opening year

Talks on with BCCI for gaining access to stadiums

Executive Board of the league under installation

Pool of referees and umpires to be created

Rules committee to form regulations for ICL

Ombudsman to look into grievances of players

League to begin with Twenty20 format and move to ODI format

League to be a joint venture between Essel Group and ILFS Group

Each of the 6 teams to be coached by an ex-India player

Each team would comprise four foreign, two Indian and eight budding players

Each team to have a mentor, media manager, psychologist, physio

Prize money for the winner- USD 1 million

League teams to compete with teams internationally of teams to be increased from 6 to 16 in three years

Cricket News Archives

• India Cricket League News : October 2008
• India Cricket League News : September 2008
• India Cricket League News : November 2007
• India Cricket League News : October 2007
• India Cricket League News : September 2007
• India Cricket League News : August 2007
• India Cricket League News : July 2007
• India Cricket League News : June 2007
• India Cricket League News : May 2007
• India Cricket League News : April 2007