14 March,2009 09:03 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Yet again, an Indian Cricket League rebel is in the eye of a storm. Yet again, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has played big bully. Former New Zealand batsman Craig McMillan, a Bengal Tigers player in the ICL, happened to land at Hamilton to be part of the Sky Sports commentary team for the fourth one-day international, but did not come on air.
McMillan's ICL connections sprung up as an issue as concerns were raised by the BCCI to New Zealand Cricket, hours before the game began. McMilllan who was also due to call on the game during the second Test, was kept away because of the concerns raised.
It can be recalled that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik were withdrawn from a charity 20-20 game because of the presence of Hamish Marshall, who played in the ICL last year.
Back to BCCI's interference on the commentary scene: It is learnt that New Zealand Cricket were warned that Ravi Shastri, the lone Indian on commentary duty in New Zealand would be withdrawn if McMillan was not kept away.
Shastri is on the governing council of the Indian Premier League. Niranjan Shah, the manager of the Indian team and an administrator who is also part of the IPL, told New Zealand Herald: "It's our Board's decision. We have to go as per the stand of our Board."u00a0 Sky's acting executive producer for cricket James Cameron said: "I don't like the idea of us being told who we can and cannot use. Macca (McMillan) is really keen. There is no doubt he will be in the mix."
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