NEW DELHI, 21 August 2007 — Star batsman Mohammad Yousuf and former skipper Inzamam ul-Haq were among four Pakistani cricketers who yesterday joined India’s unofficial Twenty20 league that has been slammed by the national board.
Organizers of the Indian Cricket League (ICL), dubbed a rebel event after being denied permission by the Indian cricket board, said Pakistani players Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq had also accepted contracts from the ICL.
ICL’s chairman and former Indian captain, Kapil Dev, yesterday announced the names of 50 players at a crowded media event in the western metropolis of Mumbai.
“Our focus is to entertain the people of our country who sometimes only see Test (international) cricket, they don’t see any other cricket,” Kapil Dev said.
“I think these boys, they have the ability and have the talent.”
Promoted by a television company, the ICL will feature six teams in Twenty20 matches between October and November.
Yousuf and Razzaq were dropped from the Pakistan team for next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, prompting Razzaq to announced his retirement from international cricket earlier Monday.
Beside the Pakistani stars, the list features former West Indies skipper Brian Lara and two South African cricketers, Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje.
Boje’s decision to play in the ICL has caused some surprise since he had earlier refused to tour India with the South African team. His name figures among those the New Delhi police wants to question in connection with a match-fixing scandal of 2000.
Lara was the first big star to join the ICL.
The event has rankled the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which warned Indian players that if they joined the rival league they would invite a life ban and also lose financial benefits.
The Indian board’s threat seems to have failed as several former internationals and young state team players have signed up for the rival league.
Indian internationals Dinesh Mongia, Deep Dasgupta, Jai Prakash Yadav, Reetinder Sodhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Thiru Kumaran were among the Indian players.
The BCCI officials will meet today in Mumbai to discuss their response to the ICL and to defiant players.
“As a cricketer, I see the ICL as an opportunity to play with some of the game’s legends,” said Mongia, who has been in and out of the Indian team during the past couple of years.
Mongia, 30, last appeared in a limited-overs international during the Champions Trophy in 2006. He was considered a player who might get a call to join the Indian national team any day, but has preferred to accept a two-year contract from the rival league.
Captain of India’s 1983 World Cup champion team, Dev has dared the Indian board to sack him as chairman of the National Cricket Academy, insisting he was doing nothing wrong by promoting cricket.
Sandip Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Sandhu, all members of the 1983 World Cup champion team, have joined Dev in signing up with the league. They have coaching assignments for the ICL teams that will feature foreign stars and Indian youngsters.
Following the BCCI directive that no member of the board should have any link with the ICL, former Test wicketkeeper Kiran More — who recently served as the chief national selector — quit his elected position as secretary of the Baroda Cricket Association.
Inzamam, who played 119 Tests and 378 One-Day Internationals, joins former West Indies Test skipper Brian Lara, in signing up.
The 37-year-old Inzamam stepped down as captain and retired from One-Day Internationals in March after his team was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup in the Caribbean.
Inzamam, who is to make his English county championship debut for Yorkshire later this month, hopes to continue playing Test cricket but the Pakistan selectors are unlikely to pick him.
“Any player who goes to play in the Indian league will not be considered for Pakistan selection again,” said Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman Ehsan Malik.
“We are a bit surprised at the situation that has developed today. But our stance will not change, nor do we have any intention of softening it.
“Losing your players is a setback. But our policy is clear since the ICL is not recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) we do not recognize it as well.”
Three other current players — pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif and all-rounder Shahid Afridi had snubbed initial offers but were said to be considering enhanced offers from the rebel league.
Yousuf when contacted also confirmed his signing.
“Yes I have signed for league cricket in India,” he told AFP.
The 32-year-old batsman, who set a new world record of 1788 runs in a calendar year in 2006, was omitted from Pakistan’s squad for next month’s inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
But he said the signing had nothing to do with his omission from the team.
“So many Pakistani players play county cricket in England and skip national duties so what if I am playing for the Indian league. It is not due to my omission,” said Yousuf, regarded as the world’s top batsman.
Yousuf’s joining the league could hurt Pakistan who host South Africa in October and then tour India in November-December this year. They also host world champions Australia in March next year.
Meanwhile, Farhat said his decision to join the league was prompted by his exclusion from the team.
“Look what the selectors have done to me. Despite my performances I have been treated unfairly on and off the field,” said Farhat who was fined for phoning a national selector to protest an earlier omission in May this year.
“Not being given chances is just like a life ban and I hope to play for my country again because my well-wishers believe I have been mistreated and my decision to join the league was backed by all of them.”
Farhat asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to terminate his central contract and became the first Pakistan player to join the ICL.
