Chris Cairns and Darren Maddy among latest ICL signings

Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Nathan Astle, Hamish Marshall, Darren Maddy and Azhar Mahmood have become the latest international cricketers to sign with the Indian Cricket League. Of these six cricketers only Maddy is still actively playing cricket at the highest level, with the others having either retired or fallen out of favour with their respective selectors.

Marshall refused a contract from New Zealand Cricket recently as he wished to pursue a career playing county cricket in England, qualifying as a Kolpak player. Cairns, Harris and Astle have not been in the New Zealand team for some time now, while Mahmood has figured in just four matches for Pakistan since 2004.

Announcing their latest signings, Kapil Dev, the chairman of the executive board of 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."

"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."

The ICL also officially announced the signing of twelve Indian domestic cricketers. Although some of these names were already on the ICL radar and in the news, it was announced on Friday that Abu Nachem, Amit Uniyal, Aniruddh Singh, Gaurav Gupta, Love Ablish, Mihir Diwakar, Rakesh Patel, Abid Nabi, Kiran Powar, Pritam Das and former India internationals S Sriram and Nilesh Kulkarni, had signed on the dotted line.

The domestic players who have already signed with the ICL are currently participating in a training camp in Chennai at the Mayajaal ground on the outskirts of the city. It has been suggested that the ICL is targeting to play its first Twenty20 matches in mid-November although it is as yet unclear where these matches will be held.