30 April,2009 08:29 AM IST | | Amol Karhadkar
Indian Cricket League (ICL) seems to be going through its toughest phase.
After being forced to cancel their World League following terror attacks in Mumbai, and then deprived of recognition from the world cricket governing body (ICC), the Zee Group's venture billed as the parallel cricket movement to the BCCI establishment when it was launched almost two years ago received yet another jolt yesterday with the BCCI offering "amnesty" to all those involved with ICL.
The BCCI's decision has opened up an option for the 100-odd players, umpires and coaches to severe all their ties with ICL before May 31 and come back into the BCCI fold.
And many believe that the BCCI's announcement is the beginning of the ICL's end.
"Most of the players will now at least represent their employers in the local tournaments and make their mark for a spot in the state team," a BCCI functionary told MiD DAY.
"It would essentially make the ICL almost non-existent as domestic players will opt for recognised cricket and the foreigners will also try and get back to international cricket by opting for domestic cricket in their respective countries."
The ICL, however, firmly denied that the decision would affect them in any case. "They (BCCI) have said that a lot of our support staff members and coaches have asked them to be re-inducted. However, it's just a small group of support staff members whose contracts had been terminated and were not going to be renewed anyway," an ICL spokesperson said.
Most of the ICL's domestic players, not willing to be named, that MiD DAY spoke to welcomed the move.
The end?
"A lot of players would opt for ending their relationship with the ICL, since most of us believe that we haven't been able to play as much competitive cricket as we should be," a young player said.
Another player, who has represented India earlier, said: "If the youngsters decide against rejoining the mainstream cricket, it could be only with the fear of being completely ignored by their respective state associations."
A West Zone player expressed his loyalty towards the rebel league, saying: "Why would I have joined them if I had to quit?" Thankfully, for the domestic players u2013 almost 50 of them signed for three years at the beginning of the movement u2013 there is a clause that allows them to exit the contract after two years.
In fact, the ICL is currently exercising the right of "performance evaluation" at the end of two years, as mentioned in the player contracts.
It would be interesting to see how many players join the stars of yesteryears u2013 including the Patils, Sandhus, Wadekars, Prasannas and Ghavris u2013 and get back into the BCCI fold.
