MUMBAI: In a major exodus, 79 rebel players took advantage of BCCI's time-bound amnesty offer and deserted the Indian Cricket League to return to official, mainstream cricket.
The BCCI on Tuesday said in a statement that the cricketers snapped their ICL ties to immediately become eligible for domestic cricket and would also be considered for international matches once they complete their one year cooling off period.
Among the 101 players and others who have deserted ICL, bankrolled by the Essel Group, were former internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta (Bengal), Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi (Punjab) and Hemang Badani (Tamil Nadu).
The 11 former cricketers who have quit the ICL are ex-Test skipper Ajit Wadekar, spin legend Erapalli Prasanna and 1983 World Cup-winning Indian squad members Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.
Most of them were tied up with the ICL as coaches. Significantly, India's only World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev, who is the chairman of the ICL's Executive Board, has not severed his relations with the league along with former Test stumper and ex-Chief Selector Kiran More.
"The BCCI, after scrutinizing their requests, has written to the concerned state associations that these players are eligible to play in the domestic tournaments for this year", said BCCI secretary N Srinivasan.
The BCCI secretary said that guidelines with respect to participation in Indian Premier League will be intimated in due course.
The Indian Board has already decided that such persons will have to serve a one-year cooling off period before becoming eligible to play international cricket for the country.
Though the ICL has been virtually emptied out of its Indian players, the rebel league put up a brave front and said that the league is not shutting down and will recruit new talent as and when it's needed.
"We still have 40-50 players, out of the original 140-odd, on our roster and as and when the need arises we would recruit fresh talent. The League is on. We are not closing down. The next season is in October-November and it's still early days", an ICL official said.
Landers said that in all there were around 85 Indian players in their roster till the second season, out of which 77 have left their fold now.
"We had already left out two of them", he pointed out, one of them being Mongia who had been suspended in October last for allegedly under-performing along with former New Zealand all rounder Chris Cairns.
http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4608232.cms?TOI_Cricket_mostread
The BCCI on Tuesday said in a statement that the cricketers snapped their ICL ties to immediately become eligible for domestic cricket and would also be considered for international matches once they complete their one year cooling off period.
Among the 101 players and others who have deserted ICL, bankrolled by the Essel Group, were former internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta (Bengal), Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi (Punjab) and Hemang Badani (Tamil Nadu).
The 11 former cricketers who have quit the ICL are ex-Test skipper Ajit Wadekar, spin legend Erapalli Prasanna and 1983 World Cup-winning Indian squad members Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.
Most of them were tied up with the ICL as coaches. Significantly, India's only World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev, who is the chairman of the ICL's Executive Board, has not severed his relations with the league along with former Test stumper and ex-Chief Selector Kiran More.
"The BCCI, after scrutinizing their requests, has written to the concerned state associations that these players are eligible to play in the domestic tournaments for this year", said BCCI secretary N Srinivasan.
The BCCI secretary said that guidelines with respect to participation in Indian Premier League will be intimated in due course.
The Indian Board has already decided that such persons will have to serve a one-year cooling off period before becoming eligible to play international cricket for the country.
Though the ICL has been virtually emptied out of its Indian players, the rebel league put up a brave front and said that the league is not shutting down and will recruit new talent as and when it's needed.
"We still have 40-50 players, out of the original 140-odd, on our roster and as and when the need arises we would recruit fresh talent. The League is on. We are not closing down. The next season is in October-November and it's still early days", an ICL official said.
Landers said that in all there were around 85 Indian players in their roster till the second season, out of which 77 have left their fold now.
"We had already left out two of them", he pointed out, one of them being Mongia who had been suspended in October last for allegedly under-performing along with former New Zealand all rounder Chris Cairns.
http://cricket.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4608232.cms?TOI_Cricket_mostread
