Abid Nabi and Chris cairns in ICL

[theguyinallblue]

http://sify.com/sports/fullstory.php?id=14535156 18 more cricketers join the Indian Cricket League Friday, 28 September , 2007, 23:13 New Delhi: Unfazed by the impending launch of BCCI's ambitious and cash-rich twenty20 tournament, the rebel Indian Cricket League on Thursday announced the signing of 18 more players, including six overseas cricketers. After lying low for several weeks, the ICL came out with its second list of players, which included four from New Zealand - Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and Hamish Marshal - alongwith England's Darren Maddy and Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood. Kapil Dev, Chairman of the Executive Board for the ICL, said, "We are extremely pleased to welcome these players to the ICL family. "These talented, experienced cricketers will definitely be a great source of learning for the youngsters who will play with them. Under their guidance, the Indian Cricket League players will develop skills comparable to the best of international cricketing talent," he said, while announcing the signings. Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid sweat it out | Ponting vs Sreesanth: Who’s the real champion? The ICL, a brainchild of the Subhash Chandra-owned Essel Group, has earlier signed over 60 cricketers with batting great Brian Lara and former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq in its ranks. "These signings are in line with our objective of providing the best platform for young cricketers from all corners of India to play alongside the superstars of International cricket, learn the tricks of the trade from them and gain confidence to excel." Among the six overseas players Chris Cairns Chris Harris and Nathan Astle have retired from international cricket while Darren Maddy and Azhar Mahmood have been in and out of their respective national teams. Tamil Nadu's S Sriram and Mumbai spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, both of whom have played for India in the past were the two well-known names among the 12 domestic players. Pacemen Rakesh Patel of Baroda and Abid Nabi Ahanger of Jammu and Kashmir were also among the prominent cricketers joining the breakaway league. The ICL had yesterday suffered a setback with Pakistan's prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf breaking ranks to sign a central contract with his cricket board. Yousuf had said he was not aware of any clause that said he had to give top priority to ICL even if Pakistan was playing international cricket. But Ashish Kaul, executive vice president of the Essel Group, said there was no reason to believe that Yousuf had turned his back on ICL and insisted he would turn up for the league scheduled in November. The ICL offers a prize money of USD 1 million in sharp contrast to the USD 3 million purse for the BCCI's Indian Premier League and USD 5 million for the Champions League. List of players who signed today: Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Nathan Astle, Hamish Marshal, Darren Maddy, Azhar Mahmood. Domestic: Abu Nechim, Amit Uniyal, Aniruddh Singh, Gaurav Gupta, Love Ablish, Mihir Diwakar, Rakesh Patel, Abid Nabi Ahanger, Kiran Powar, S Sriram, Pritam Das, Nilesh Kulkarni. i think i will watch few matches of ICL just to watch cairns play...

[yoda]

Donno how ICL and IPL both can survive.

[coffee_rules]

The state associations seems to be the worst-hit. They will not field their second-X1s in the domestic tournaments and the quality of it goes down. The national scene cannot survive only the bench strength (5 or 6 players) and the India-A players. ICL might be getting the cream of the Indian domestic players.