IPL to take on ICL
NEW DELHI, Sept. 13: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) dealt a huge blow to Indian Cricket League (ICL) today, unveiling their own Twenty20 tournament ~ Indian Premier League (IPL).
BCCI vice-president Mr Lalit Modi today announced the launch of IPL in the capital in the presence of the newly appointed president of International Cricket Council (ICC) Mr Ray Mali and the officials from most of the Test-playing countries, and Zimbabwe.
While the idea is based on the format of the English Premier League (EPL), the introduction of Champions Twenty20 League ~ which will see the participation of teams from Australia, South Africa and England along with India, give it a more international look.
With $ 3m as prize money, IPL would also be the richest domestic cricket in the history of the game. IPL will be spread across 44 days and will be played under floodlights. The league will have two divisions ~ Intra Division and Inter division.
While the Intra Division matches would be played on weekends, the Inter Division games would be held on weekdays.
Putting rest to the speculations, legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne, speedster Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming have committed themselves to the new venture.
All the three had earlier been linked to the Indian Cricket League (ICL). While McGrath has refused to take part of the Essel’s group venture, Shane Warne sent a letter to the group refusing their offer.
The BCCI vice-president said each team would have a minimum of 16 players comprising BCCI registered players, of which four under-21 players would have to be from the city the team is based.
“For instance if a franchisee is based in Delhi then the team will have to comprise four Delhi players,” he said. The teams will also feature “designated players” who could well be contracted from the Indian national team or overseas contracted players.
Regarding the schedule, Mr Modi said: “The tournament is scheduled for April next year and will feature eight teams in the first season, with each team playing seven matches on home and away basis.
“There will be 56 matches to determine the four teams, who would then face-off in the semi-final. The semi-finals and the final will be played on Super Saturday towards the end of April 2008.”
On a query whether this would put pressure on an already crammed calendar, Mr Modi explained: “Our calendar ends by March, I don’t think it is a problem.”
In keeping with the Twenty20 tradition, the matches will be played in the evening and would be finished by 11 p.m. On the Super Saturdays, the matches will start at 10 in the morning.
Coming after the loss of 70 players including Rohan Gavaskar, whose father Sunil Gavaskar is a member of governing council of IPL, the BCCI, however, said the newly-launched league was not its answer to rebel ICL but a “genuine” project on which it was working for quite some time.
“This not a knee-jerk reaction to any tournament but genuine project of ours which we have been working on for closely two years,” Mr Modi, who looks after the marketing of the Board said.
The league would be run by a BCCI governing council, which will have Mr Modi as its convenor. Apart from Gavaskar, former board president Mr IS Bindra, BCCI vice-president Mr Rajiv Shukla and Mr Chirayu Amin, alongwith former captains Ravi Shastri and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi have been appointed as members of the council.
“Governing council will hire premises to play the matches. It will hire a marketing team, managers and lawyers to run the league. It will also take care of the allocation of commercial rights,” Mr Modi said.
