Indian Cricket League
Tuesday, 6th November, 2007
Indian Cricket League
Everything started with a bid for the telecast rights of the biggest international cricket event- The world cup 2003. Zee Telefilms, was denied the telecast rights, though their big was highest. Once again Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms bid for telecast rights in 2004 and was denied. His response: the ICL. “They denied us the cricket content,” says Himanshu Mody, business head of ICL and Zee’s sports channels. “So, we had to create our own content”.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) is a proposed private cricket league that will run parallel to the existing cricket league managed by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The format of ICL will be Twenty20. On Zee Telefilms announced that it would be partner with infrastructure major IL&FS to create a new ambitious cricket league, Indian Cricket League (ICL).
This league will have a prize money of $ 1 million for the winner. ICL was set up with a Rs. 100 crore (Rs. 1 billion) corpus, and would initially comprise six teams to be expanded to 16 in three years. This will make ICL the richest professional league in the country with an annual prize of $1 million (Rs. 4.4 crore). ICL has already signed a number of major players but is yet to reveal their names. On July 24th, some great international names cropped up such as Brian Lara. The ICL has confirmed that Brian Lara and Inzaman-Ul-Haq has signed up and will be joining the league.
The Pakistan Cricket Board warned its players to stay away from the league. Imran Farhat though chose to opt out of his Pakistan Central contract to sign with the Indian Cricket League. Former captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team Javed Miandad said he is not able to understand why PCB is not allowing its players to play in the league and even threatened players with a lifetime ban.
Each team will be coached by a former India player and will comprise four international, two Indian and eight budding domestic players. Essel Group is also planning to set up cricket academies all over the country. BCCI has been assured that it is free to draw from ICL’s talent pool. The league will be functional by July-August 2007 and will start with Twenty20 format matches in the run-up to the Twenty20 World Cup in September 2007.
Only professional, paid and accountable people have been hired to run the ICL. There will be no "honorary-positions" such as unpaid selectors. Former international cricketers including Kapil Dev, Tony Greig, Dean Jones and Kiran More have been hired as board members of the Indian Cricket League. The board positions will be paid positions.
The BCCI refused to recognize ICL as a cricket league, and criticized 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 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 the best is. The state government of West Bengal has also agreed to rent its cricket grounds, notably the Eden Gardens, to the league and anybody else..
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.
