Indian Cricket: BCCI's Response

The BCCI refused to recognise ICL as a cricket league, and criticised Kiran More and Kapil Dev for joining ICL.Kapil Dev's association with ICL was seen as conflict of interest as he is the current chairman of National Cricket Academy, a BCCI owned cricket facility. As of August 21, 2007 Kapil Dev has been sacked from his NCA post. Subhash Chandra had earlier stated that the ICL will go ahead regardless of the BCCI stance. The International Cricket Council gave a statement through its chief executive, Malcom Speed, that ICC won't recognize ICL unless BCCI recognizes it. ICC looks at ICL as an issue to be sorted out by BCCI.

Faced with the threat of young players joining the ICL, the BCCI jacked up prize money for winners, runner-up and losing semi-finalists across all tournaments. An average domestic cricketer can hope to make around Rs 35,000 per match day from the season of 2007-08: more than double the Rs 16,000 they got in 2005-06. The BCCI has also planned to do away with honorary selectors, who will be paid from September 2008 onwards.

BCCI has started its own international Twenty20 league, with the help of Australian, England & South Africa boards. The league, which will start in October 2008, is called the Champions Twenty20 cricket. The league model is said to be a revolutionary one, on the model of NFL, MLB in USA.

ICL takes BCCI to court

In August 2007, ICL filed a petition against BCCI in the Delhi High Court accusing that BCCI is threatening and intimidating them as well as other state organsiations not affiliated to it and asked the court to stop BCCI from interfering with its attempts to sign up players for its tournaments. It also petitions that the BCCI stop trying to "out-hire" many cricket stadiums in India that are owned by the state governments, in anti-competitive, anti-market behaviour to stop the ICL from using them to play matches.

On August 27, 2007, the Delhi High Court ruled in favor of ICL. In its ruling, the Delhi High Court has said that players should not suffer in the battle between corporate giants. The court has issued notice to all corporate sponsors, the state cricket associations & the BCCI against terminating contracts of players joining the league.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) of India has asked its Director-General of Investigation to do an initial investigation into BCCI's action against players who have joined ICL. The investigation was based on media reports of BCCI giving an open statement that it will ban players who will join ICL. It was also reported in the media that all state associations, under BCCI, have removed cricket players from contracts.

Support for the league

ICL has received support from unexpected quarters. There was a fear that lack of infrastructure, like the cricket stadiums, might limit the success of the operation of the league. But, support from various government bodies has boosted the league. It was reported that camps will be held at Mayajaal in Chennai, which is a private resort with good cricket facilities. Indian Railways chief Lalu Prasad has shown his backing by opening all the cricket stadiums controlled by the Indian Railways to the league. Terming ICL as a “good initiative”, Mr. Lalu Prasad has given a statement saying that the BCCI and ICL should, each, come up with a cricket team and play against each other to show who's the best. The state government of West Bengal has also agreed to rent its cricket grounds, notably the Eden Gardens, to the league and anybody else.

Future of ICL

It has often been said that the ICL is a challenge and/or a rival to the BCCI. Furthermore, due to the corruption-free and professional nature of ICL, it is much more efficient with its money and resources than the BCCI. It is said that the ICL could overtake the BCCI in terms of revenue or influence within 5-10 years. Just as the ATP took over the ITF in tennis 35 years ago.

In a poll conducted by a leading online cricket website 68.9% of those voted said ICL will do better than BCCI in the coming years, 14.9% said they will work together with ICL having a supportive role, while 16.2% expressed concern that ICL will be a failure.

Cricketers as officials and players for ICL

ICL has planned to involve many former cricket players to run the league. Since one of the criticisms against the traditional cricketing system, run by BCCI under ICC, is that some crucial official postions are not occupied by cricketers, ICL seems to address this.

Former cricket players as officials (Alphabetical Order)

Executive Board

Dean Jones (Aus)
Kapil Dev (Ind)
Kiran More (Ind)
Tony Greig (Eng)

Coaches

Madan Lal (Ind)
Sandeep Patil (Ind)

Talent Scouts

Mentors

Erapalli Prasanna (Ind)

Signed up cricket players

ICL, in its quest to sign up about 90 players before the official start of the league in October 2007, has so far signed up many upcoming, current & former cricket players from India, Pakistan, South Africa, etc. There are rumors that other popular current & former players have been approached by the ICL.