Indian Cricket League (ICL) is a private cricket league, promoted by Subhash Chandra of the Essel Group. The announcement of the launch was made by Chandra on April 3, 2007. Subhash Chandra is also the founder and chairman of Zee TV. In 2003, the telecast rights for the Cricket World Cup were denied to the Zee Telefilms. Subhash Chandra lost the bid again in 2004. Zee TV made another attempt for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. They were once denied the broadcasting rights and therefore decided to create their own content. That was the logic behind creating ICL.
Indian Cricket League was set up with a Rupees 100 crores corpus fund with prize money of one million US dollars, for the winning team in the first tournament scheduled for November 30, 2007. Some famous international cricketers were invited on July 24, 2007 to sign the most lucrative deal to play for ICL. Brian Lara, former West Indian Captain, Jason Gillespie from Australia, Andrew Hall and Justine Kemp from South Africa, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq, Taufiq Umar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan from Pakistan and many cricketers from other countries signed-up to play for ICL. Former Indian Skipper Kapil Dev, Kiran More, Tony Greig and Dean Jones were hired to run the league.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) immediately reacted and refused to recognise the ICL. To counter the ICL, the BCCI announced its own version called the Indian Premier League to play Twenty20 cricket tournament from April18, 2008.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) supported the BCCI decision and refused to recognise ICL as an official league. Other boards from Test playing nations went along with BCCI and imposed bans on their players to participate in rebel Indian Cricket League. In December 2007, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned those Pakistani players who appeared in the ICL, from playing their national and international cricket. This decision provoked worldwide condemnation. Imran Khan and Javed Miandad criticised the PCB decision.
Filed under: Cricket | Tagged: $1 million, 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, Abdul Razzaq, Andrew Hall, April 18th 2008, April 3rd 2007, Australia, BCCI, Brian Lara, Chairman, Corpus Fund, Cricket, Cricket World Cup, Cricketers, Dean Jones, Essel Group, Former Indian Skipper, Founder, ICC, ICL, Imran Farhat, Imran Khan, Indian Cricket League, Indian Premier League, International Cricket Council, International Cricketers, Jason Gillespie, Javed Miandad, July 24th 2007, Justine Kemp, Kapil Dev, Kiran More, League, Lucrative Deal, November 30th 2007, Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket Board, Pakistani Players, PCB, Prize Money, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rebel, Rupees 100 Crores, South Africa, Subhash Chandra, Taufiq Umar, Telecast Rights, The Board of Control for Cricket in India, Tony Greig, Tournament, Twenty20, West Indian Captain, Zee Telefilms, Zee TV | 1 Comment »
THINK! 