BCCI re-admits 79 rebel players

BCCI has granted amenesty to rebel players who joined ICL by re-admiting 79 of them. All these 79 players are now elgible to play in all the domestic tournaments in the country. It includes some of the stalwarts of the domestic cricket such as Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia and Sridharan Sriram. But they will have to serve a cooling period of upto 1 year before they are elgible for national selections. On their participation in IPL is still under wraps, but it is believed they would be granted to play the next edition of IPL. This comes as rude shock to the organisers of the ICL, who not only have lost the players but also, 11 officials. Although chairman of ICL executive board Mr. Kapil Dev is still with ICL.

ICL was started with the help of Zee Telvision after the fight with BCCI over the telecast rights issue. The first edition of ICL was a roaring hit which made its counterparts envious and pricked their egos. BCCI as a counter measure took the T20 format to the next level on the similar lines of ICL and inaugurated the IPL. IPL with all its glam, money and publicity was an instant hit. The sucess of IPL also meant a good share of ICL audience went the IPL way. Many of the players who left for ICL in haste have been banned by BCCI. They have been seeking their readmission into the official cricket organisation after the success of IPL.

Though ICL being the inventors of a T20 domestic league the organisers find themselves in a shelf now. The monopolic policies of BCCI have been challenged by them for the first time and as usual the big and mighty BCCI has cruched the ICL. Though there has been requests of making ICL official, but this would be the last thing that BCCI would ever do!