The Indian Cricket League delivered its first biggest official blow on the BCCI by announcing the recruitment of 45 Indian first class cricketers along with six International players in a colourful ceremony held at Mumbai. The Essel Group which has come up with the ICL concept has managed to get Former Pakistani Skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s prolific run getter in the recent past – Mohammad Yousuf, opener Imran Farhat and all-rounder Abdul Razzaq. There are also two former South African all rounders – Nicky Boje and Zulu Lance Klusener who have joined the Indian Cricket League. The ICL had got the legendary player Brian Lara long time back. Some of the Indian names include a few discards and few young talent who are likely to play for India in the future. According to Kapil Dev, the Chairman of the league Executive Board, the ICL has managed to get the cream of the country.
Some of the players who have represented India and who have joined the ICL are Dinesh Mongia, Deep Dasgupta, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, JP Yadav, Thiru Kumaran, Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Among the upcoming players who have been expected to don the Indian colours at some point of time are Dheeraj Jadhav of Maharashtra, Ambati Rayudu, the former India U-19 player, Bengal’s Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Ishan Malhatra of Punjab and Shalabh Srivastava from UP to name a few. The name of Sridharan Sriram although speculated in the media didn’t come out as a recruit. However, the ICL has stated that there are still few more players been considered. All the players have gone ahead of signing the contracts despite a stern warning of a life ban from the BCCI. Former Indian off spinning legend Erapalli Prasanna has joined the ICL, in the role of an an Executive Board Member.
The Indian Cricket League is gearing up to host a Twenty20 Cup to announce their arrival. Now that they have come up with the players in the open, the next step would be to get international standard venues for the matches to be held. The BCCI which is going to meet on the 21st will be trying its best to recover from what is a completely hopeless situation.
The ICL Recruited Players : Brian Lara, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq, Nicky Boje, Lance Klusener, Dinesh Mongia (Punjab), JP Yadav (Railways), Deep Dasgupta (Bengal), Dheeraj Jadhav (Maharashtra), AT Rayudu (Hyderabad), Abbas Ali (Railways), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (Bengal), Avinash Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Reetinder Sodhi (Punjab), Hemanth Kumar (Tamil Nadu), P Inder Shekar Reddy (Hyderabad), Ishan Malhatra (Punjab), Kaushik Reddy (Hyderabad), Laxmi Ratan Shukla (Bengal), Manish Sharma (Punjab), Ibrahim Khaleel (Hyderabad), Monish Mishra (Madhya Pradesh), Robin Morris (Mumbai), Alfred Absolem (Hyderabad), Ali Murtaza (Uttar Pradesh), Shashank Nag (Hyderabad), Shibsagar Singh (Punjab), Abhijit Shetye (Mumbai), Devendran (Tamil Nadu), Sumit Kalia (Punjab), D Kumaran (Tamil Nadu), Taduri Prakash Sudhindra (Madhya Pradesh), Sarabjit Singh (Services), Thirunavakarasu Kumaran (Tamil Nadu), G Vignesh (Tamil Nadu), D Vinay Kumar (Hyderabad), Yashpal Singh (Services), J Hariesh (Tamil Nadu), Rajagopal Satish (Assam), Rajesh Sharma (Punjab), Ranjit Khirid (Maharashtra), Sachin Dholpure (Madhya Pradesh), Shalabh Srivastava (Uttar Pradesh), Shreyas Khanolkar (Railways), Subhojit Paul (Bengal), Subhomoy Das (Bengal) and Raviraj Parekh (Gujarat)