Th Indian Cricket League announced its roster of players with six foreign and 44 Indian recruits

Anand Vasu in Mumbai20-Aug-2007

Kapil Dev called the ICL’s new recruits ‘the best in the country’ © AFP
Days of fervent speculation came to an end today with the Indian CricketLeague announcing its roster of players, which included Inzamam-ul-Haqand Mohammad Yousuf and an assortment of Indians – former internationals, domestic veterans and greenhorns. However, the organisers failed to shedany light on the details of the tournament.Prominent in the list of 50 released at the press conference were DineshMongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Deep Dasgupta, JP Yadav, Laxmi RatanShukla and T Kumaran, all former Indian cricketers. And apart fromInzamam and Yousuf, the ICL announced the names of Abdul Razzaq andImran Farhat from Pakistan, who have signed on with Lance Klusenerand Nicky Boje of South Africa.Last month the ICL had announced the signing of Brian Lara, the former West Indies captain, and he remains the biggest name to join till date.However, the organisers could not yet reveal where or when the proposed40-day Twenty20 tournament would take place. It is believed that thetournament will be held in October. However, at the same time Australiawill be in India to play a series of seven ODIs. Soon after that Pakistantour India, another marquee series, while India tour Australia straightafter. The organisers do not have a window in which to stage thistournament, without it clashing with the Indian team’s itinerary, andperhaps that explained why they could not come up with dates.Kapil Dev, the chairman of the executive board of the ICL, pointed to theassembled group of cricketers, calling them “the cream of talent” in thecountry, as one-by-one, the 44 cricketers from domestic cricket walked upand took their places on a podium alongside the dais where officials ofthe ICL were seated.The most severely hit association was Hyderabad with eight of its playersjoining the ICL. Bengal and Punjab have also had their Ranji teams eroded,with the likes of Deep Dasgupta, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Subhomoy Das,Subhojit Paul and Shibsagar Singh from Bengal, and Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Ishan Malhotra from Punjab. Railways and Uttar Pradesh were two other teams also badly hit.The ICL organisers were also tightlipped about the kind of money peoplewere being offered. They refused to either confirm or deny the kind ofnumbers doing the rounds in the media. It is speculated that players fromIndian domestic cricket – not international stars like Inzamam and Yousuf- were being paid in the region of Rs 30 lakh ($72,600) a year.When it was put to Kapil that the contract period of ICL was three years,and that it was likely that players who signed on with ICL would losetheir regular jobs – most players are employed to represent theircompanies in leagues and tournaments conducted under the auspices of theBCCI and its affiliates, and will be unable to do so if a ban were imposed- he responded, “Can you tell me what will happen to your job after twoyears?” Kapil shot back. “As long as they keep on playing well, they willdo well. These are professional people who have to make their own lives.”Kapil was seated alongside the other officials of the ICL – Himanshu Mody,the project head of ICL, Sandeep Patil, Kiran More, EAS Prasanna, BharatReddy, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Madan Lal, Rajesh Chauhan and Pranab Roy.Kapil was at his emotional best, exhorting his players to do well, andcongratulating them on showing the bravery they had in joining the ICL.”I’d like to take everyone to where we started some months ago. At that time peopleasked, ‘Where will you get cricketers from?’ This is the cream of thecountry,” he said, pointing to the group of 44 Indian cricketers. “Thecourage these people have showed, even I didn’t have at that age. We needpeople like this who want to make their own decisions. They take pride toplay for their country, not being pushed by someone or threatened bysomeone. What we need is to entertain the people in this country. I willback you till the last day I live.”In their turn the players who had joined the ICL spoke of their reasonsfor doing so. “I thought of all the pros and cons. Playing domesticcricket does not give me a chance to play against international stars,”said Abhishek Jhunjhunwala. “This gives me very good security.”Mongia, who is believed to be one of the big-ticket signings, said,”My clear thought is, as a cricketer I want to play cricket. I play clubcricket in Chandigarh, in Madras I play in corporate tournaments, I playRanji Trophy for Punjab, and league cricket in England. Here again I get achance to play with youngsters who are good, and foreign players.”Interestingly, Mody, the head of the initiative, claimed he knew nothing ofthe circumstances surrounding Boje, after announcing his signing.Boje had withdrawn from South Africa’s last tour of India, with the Delhipolice wanting to question him regarding matchfixing allegationssurrounding an existing case in the Hansie Cronje affair from years ago.”I suppose Boje has taken all that into consideration when signing thecontract,” he said. “He has signed with us and that’s all I know. I’m notaware of these allegations of betting or whatever it is you’re speakingof.”International players
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, LanceKlusener, Nicky BojeIndian players
Hyderabad : Ambati Rayudu, Alfred Absolem, Inder Shekar Reddy, Ibrahim Khaleel, Shashank Nag, D Vinay Kumar, Kaushik Reddy, Anirudh SinghBengal: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Deep Dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shibsagar Singh, Subhomoy Das, Subhojit Paul, Syed Akhlakh Ahmed.Punjab: Dinesh Mongia, Ishan Malhotra, Reetinder Sodhi, Manish Sharma, Sarabjit Singh, Rajesh Sharma, Sumit KaliaTamil Nadu: V Devendran, J Hariesh, R Sathish, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Thirunavukarasu Kumaran, Hemanth Kumar, G VigneshUttar Pradesh: Shalabh Srivastava, Ali Murtaza, Avinash YadavMaharashtra: Dheeraj Jadhav, Ranjit Khirid, Sridharan SriramMadhya Pradesh: Syed Abbas Ali Khan, Sachin Dholpure, Mohnish Mishra,T SurendraRailways: Jai Prakash Yadav, Shreyas KhanolkarBaroda: Kiran PowarAndhra: Syed SahabuddinMumbai: Robin MorrisServices: Yashpal SinghNon first-class players: Abhishek T (Chattisgarh), Raviraj Patil and Puskaraj Mohan Joshi (both Maharashtra)