ICC won't bat for league, throws its weight behind BCCI

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday reiterated its support to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stating that it will not back the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) until it is approved by the country’s official cricket administration.

“BCCI is the only recognised body by the ICC to run official cricket in India. We have not got any application from the ICL (for recognition) yet, but we have already set a five-step process to decide on such issues,” said Malcolm Speed, CEO, ICC.

Mr Speed said the first four steps in the process of approving a tournament by a private body were: Whether it’s run for the development of the game or for charitable purpose; who were all playing in it and whether the players were all contracted to their parent boards; when and where they are to be played and whether anti-corruption measures were put in place to run the event.

It is only after all these steps “we will find out whether it has the approval of the member board,” he added. Describing the fifth stage he said, “In the last stage, we will be asking the applicants whether the member board of the country has approved it. If the answer is no, we would not give it our recognition.”

Mr Speed talked of an instance in the past of a tournament planned last year in the USA which was shot down by the ICC for not fulfilling the criteria he had mentioned. However, ICL seemed unaffected by ICC’s stand.

An ICL spokesperson told ET, “We have never approached the ICC to recognise us, and the question of the ICC’s acceptance or non-acceptance has no meaning as they themselves have no legal status. We have always maintained that we would be a parallel body, so how can a rival club look at giving us any kind of authenticity.”

He added, “The BCCI themselves have admitted that they are a private club, who have no legal entity. So, the question of they looking at us as a recognised body doesn’t arise at all.”

The breakaway league, promoted by Subhash Chandra, plans to hold Twenty20 tournaments between city teams for the next three years. Former Test captains Brian Lara of the West Indies and Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan are among the stars ICL has signed up for the series so far.

ICL last week filed a legal petition against the BCCI in the Delhi High court, saying the latter was a private body and could not have monopoly over running cricket in India.

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