BCCI vs ICL Debate

The emergence of Indian Cricket League (ICL) into Indian Cricket scene will change the scenario of the cricketing culture of India. The name of big players like Matt Prior, Brain Lara, Glenn McGrath has created ripples among the cricketing world. The ICL will be based on the Twenty20 game, the least developed of cricket’s three formats in India. The first edition of the BCCI’s own Twenty20 tournament sank without a trace and this has provided right platform to launch for ICL.

Its initiative to rope retired international and current players and the money offered has drawn the attention of the cricketing world. On the flip side BCCI has not recognized ICL and asked all the bodies to do the same. The BCCI has never nurtured the cricketing system; the World Cup victory 24 years ago was probably more by accident. The core competence of it is making money (It is the richest board in the world). They have been many leagues such as Mumbai’s Times League and Kanga League, which coexisted with the system before and even exists, told but why is BCCI so worried about ICL.

The only reason, which can be seen, is the ICL involvement television programming which treads directly on the BCCI’s turf (money rules this world). There is a good opportunity for BCCI to outsource the Twenty20 matches in India to ICL so that it can nurture the talent for this kind of format, which in turn can be picked up by BCCI. The presence of international players will be a good exposure to the upcoming talent. The biggest problem for ICL is, currently the lack of a venues, BCCI closed all. Recently Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has to make the Railways stadium available for the proposed twenty20 tournament. The BCCI could be hoist by its own petard: losing the opportunity to get the best of cricket.

cricket, ICL, India