BCCI launches ‘Indian Premier League’ of Twenty20 against Zee’s ICL

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launches its first Professional venture in the form of Twenty20 league, which will be called ‘Indian Premier League’ (IPL). With this announcement the Board has definitely called the shots in reply to Zee group’s promoted Indian Cricket League (ICL). This new concept was made public among the hot shots of World cricket at a press conference here on Thursday.

The launch has been attended by all the members of Test playing nations including ICC President Ray Malli, Indian cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Skipper Rahul Dravid. New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming along with Australia’s Glen Mcgrath and Shane Warne were also present on the occasion. They have confirmed their association with the league.

According to the BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi the IPL will work in a similar pattern to Britain’s English Premiership League where clubs will be the franchisees of BCCI and players of the said clubs will be sold and purchased like any professional club. BCCI has penned down a draft and format of the IPL.

Eight clubs will play in the IPL’s first season, starting in April 2008 next year, with a tournament among the clubs which will last for 44 days and all the matches would be played on home and away basis. A total of 59 matches will be played with 177 hours of entertainment with a Super Saturday in which both the semi-finals and the final will be played on the very same day. The total prize money for Indian Premier League will be $3 million.

Its final leg will be called ‘Champions Twenty20 League’ and all the finalists from across the World will play in this Champions League. The champion team in the Champions Twenty20 league will get $5 million, highest ever for a cricket event.

The league will be run by separate Governing body which will independently manage the affairs of the IPL, which comprises IS Bindra, Chirayu Ameen, Arun Jaitly, Rajeev Shukla, MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar Ravi Shastri and Lalit Modi as their members. The integration of accounts of IPL will be done on annual basis. There will be separate office for the IPL at the MCA’s newly constructed Cricket House.

The Champions Twenty20 league is slated to be played in the first week of October 2008. The aim of the league is to revitalize domestic cricket. Apart from India, Six domestic teams from three nations have confirmed their participation in the first Twenty20 League which included Australia, England and South Africa.

All these things will be run under the rules and regulations of BCCI. There are certain mandatory guidelines for the franchisees to follow:

• Clubs (Franchisee) should have their home ground.
• Each club can have a maximum pool of 16 players.
• Clubs must have four Under-21 youth players in their Pool of 16.
• Four players must belong to the territory where club was located or instituted.
• Each foreign player will be named ‘designated player’ and will be purchased through open bidding among the clubs for their next season.
• All the matches will be played under floodlights.
• An Inter and Intra division should be played among the said clubs.
• Intra division matches would be played on weekends while inter division matches will be played on weekdays.

The clubs will be formed by the BCCI and the franchisees have to pay the Board to form a club. There will be two divisions for the franchisees namely South and North. All the franchisees will be given territorial exclusivity so that nobody can interfere in their own area regarding player’s registration etc. The last but not the least as all the matches will be played under the rules and regulations of ICC.

No compromise with ICL: BCCI

New Delhi, Sept 15: BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi today ruled out any compromise with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and also denied using money power to lure away the likes of Shane Warne and Stephen Fleming from the rebel league.

Modi snubbed ICL as a set of “glorified exhibition matches” and said there could not be any compromise with the backers of the ICL.

“Our Indian Premier League (IPL) has the backing of full 10 Test playing nations and there can’t be any comparison with the ICL.

“I hope launching IPL, in no way, stops my good friend Subhash Chandra (chief of Essel group backing ICL) from running the league. But no rapprochement is possible on this issue,” he told NDTV.

Modi wished luck to ICL and did not rule out the possibility of both the league continuing simultaneously.

“I hope both may peacefully co-exist,” he said in a lighter vein.

He denied that the trio of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming, who were negotiating with ICL, succumbed to the lure of more money.

“I can tell you for I have seen the contracts that the money is far, far less than what some other people were offering them. Money is not the thing they are looking for, it’s not the sole criterion for them. What they were looking for is the right platform”, he said. (Agencies)

Pakistan Twenty20 Premier League to start next year

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistan will launch its edition of an international Twenty20 competition in October 2008 featuring foreign players and six franchised teams. Dr Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, told a news conference on Saturday the six teams would be franchised to corporate groups who had shown interest in the event.

“The Pakistan Premier League is part of the International Champions League which is approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and will be run by five boards,” Ashraf said. The Indian Cricket Board announced in New Delhi on Thursday the launch of the Champions League which will feature the top two Premier League teams from India, Pakistan, Australia, England and South Africa.

Ashraf said the new event would be different from the domestic Twenty20 competition held in Pakistan over the last two years. “In the Premier League each team will have four foreign players, four regional players and the rest retired and under-21 players,” he said.

Ashraf added that it would eventually resemble English soccer’s Premier League, with players allowed to move for transfer fees.

But he dismissed suggestions the league was being launched to counter the threat posed by the rebel Indian Cricket League which has signed up Pakistani players Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq.

Indian Cricket League Will Get Bigger, Better, Says Legendary All-Rounder Kapil Dev

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) will soon come out with more names on its side and the teams for the league tournament starting November, head of ICL executive board Kapil Dev said.

“Our objective is more cricket; better cricket. Everything will be transparent. Even the selection process will be telecast live on television,” Kapil told reporters at the ICL training camp in Chennai.

“There will be six foreign players in each of the six teams playing the league”, he said.

To a query if the ICL was a haven for retired players, Kapil said, “We have players from 17 years of age. Very soon we will come out with some names. Wait and see which side (of the age) they are on. In fact, these players are the true professionals in Indian cricket.”

On whether ICL faced problems not having grounds to play its matches, the World Cup winning captain retorted, “The BCCI could have only 10 or 12 grounds in more than 70 years. This is only our first year.”

“As for the matches, we can play even here (Champ Sports Village, where the ICL camp is being held).” He added that the ICL would think of having its own grounds.

Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra reiterated that ICL has nothing to do with the telecast rights of BCCI matches and the idea of the league was conceived a couple of years before the Zee group launched its sports channel.

“In any country, domestic sports are bigger than international ones. ICL enjoys unprecedented support from people in the country, abroad and the media,” he said.

On Rohan Gavaskar joining ICL, Chandra said, “Rohan is one among the 70 players who have joined us. The real heroes will emerge as the tournament starts.”

Earlier, Kapil said the 20-20 form of cricket has arrived with Tuesday’s opening match between South Africa and West Indies.

“Getting more than 200 runs in 20 overs! That is what people want to watch,” he said.

On whether the ICL league format, like 20-20, would also be in favour of batsmen, Kapil said, “Cricket has always been a batsman’s game.”

Chandra later added, “The public are our (ICL’s) customers and we will keep them happy.”

PCB to launch Pakistan Premier League next year

KARACHI, September 15: Pakistan Cricket Board on Saturday announced that it will launch its franchised version of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket in October next year.

PCB chairman Naseem Ashraf said the Pakistan Premier League, featuring six teams, would be launched immediately after the ICC Champions Trophy to be hosted in the country.

Ashraf said the Pakistan League would be a franchised part of the Champions League, which was announced by the Indian Cricket Board earlier this week with Australia, South Africa and England as participating partner boards.

Ashraf said the top two teams from the Pakistan Premier League would take part in the Champions League to be launched by 2009.

“Each of the six teams will feature four foreign players, four local players of the region and under-21 players whose services can be obtained for fees. The six teams will also be franchised by corporates,” he said.

Ashraf said the Premier league would be managed by former Pakistani players and the eventual idea was to allow players to benefit monetarily.

He denied the Indians had launched the Champions League concept and its franchised versions to counter a looming threat from the rebel Indian Cricket League launched by the Essel group in India.

“No this concept of the Champions League franchise was in the pipeline by the Indian board for the last one year and was discussed by the participating boards. It will be an official event and it will allow players to play for their countries as well as earn from playing I the Twenty20 leagues,” he added.

Ashraf said the players would be allowed to represent their countries on priority basis as part of their contracts to play in the Premier League.

“It is a good opportunity for retired and present players to earn and also for our young players to play alongside and learn from the stars.”

He made it clear that the Pakistan League would not clash with the Indian Premier League whenever it is launched.

“A lot of details have been discussed in advance and since we have been holding a domestic Twenty20 tournament for last three years we thought we can go ahead with the Premier League as well which will be boosted by the presence of foreign players.”

Ashraf said the Premier League was different from Pakistan’s domestic championship as it would have all franchised teams and contracted players.

“A lot of money and television/advertising revenues would be involved in this project.”

Asked what the Pakistan board planned to do about the four players — Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul Haq, Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq — who had signed up for the rebel ICL, Ashraf said the four can always make themselves available to play for Pakistan.

“The doors are open for them. Infact, we have had discussions with Yousuf and we are hopeful he will come back. The others can also contact us and talk to us if they want to comeback and leave the ICL.”

The Pakistan board has said since the ICC and Indian board didn’t recognise the ICL it would not consider players for selection who join the rebel league.

ACA supports Champions League

Melbourne, Sep 15 (PTI) Australian Cricketers Association has thrown its support behind the lucrative new Champions League despite initially voicing concerns.
“We see this competition as a terrific opportunity for state cricketers,” said Paul Marsh, chief executive of the association.

“We have some initial concerns regarding the possible involvement of Australian and international guest players. (But) We have commenced discussions with Cricket Australia about all aspects of the competition and will continue to work through this over the coming months,” he was quoted as saying in ‘The Age’ today.

Australia, India, South Africa and England will hold domestic twenty tournaments and the two best teams will progress to the Champions League final, in October 2008.

The successful team will win $2 million prize money.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming are expected to play in the new Indian Premier League.

Cricket Australia is developing an operational blueprint for the worldwide league, which is expected to allow states to sign a couple of star imports, and to allow contracted Australian players such as Adam Gilchrist to appear for an Indian franchise in the tournament to determine the best domestic team in the world.

NZ Cricket yesterday said it liked the idea of adding provincial sides to the Australian Big Bash tournament the summer after next. PTI