Pakistan players file legal notice against ICL

The Pakistani players who participated in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL) have served a legal notice on the league's management over payments due to them since December 2008.

"In spite of all the efforts, there is still no response and the promises have not been fulfilled by ICL which caused the players to suffer considerable losses," a statement issued on behalf of the players said. "To this effect, a legal notice has been dispatched to ICL by players to clear their dues."

Nineteen players from Pakistan, including current captain Mohammad Yousuf and allrounder Abdul Razzaq, had signed up with the league. The defection had taken away nearly the entire bench strength of the national side at the time, but, upon severing their ties from the league, starting May last year, the players became eligible for international return. A bulk of the Pakistan players in the ICL were part of the Lahore Badshahs team, coached by former wicketkeeper Moin Khan.

The legal notice has been filed after repeated attempts by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), the players' lobby group, to negotiate the matter of outstanding dues with the ICL had failed. Tim May, the chief executive of FICA, said in December last year the ICL owed "millions of dollars" in outstanding payments to its players, officials and support staff. He had warned that the situation, if not resolved, could be damaging to the league.

"For a number of months, FICA (on behalf of a number of players from numerous countries) has been in discussions with the ICL in relation to outstanding payments to players, officials and support staff, relating as far back to 2008," May had said. "These outstanding monies amount to millions of dollars.

"The players are sick and tired of the broken commitments from ICL and the evasiveness of various ICL officials and now after exhausting all reasonable efforts to settle the issue amicably, they believe they have no other option than to contemplate legal action against ICL for the recovery of these payments."

Officials from the ICL, when contacted by Cricinfo, were unavailable for comment.