ICC awaits Indian board's report on ICL

With talks between the BCCI and ICL on officially accommodating the Twenty20 league having failed, the spotlight now is on the next move by the parties concerned. The ball appears to be in the ICC's court; it will be briefed - before November 4, under its own stipulation - by the Indian board on Thursday's meeting in New Delhi, and has been asked by the ICL to convene a board meeting by November 7 and decide on the issue.

At Mohali, on the sidelines of the India-Australia Test match, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said it would wait for the BCCI's official report before considering the ICL application for recognition. In the meantime David Morgan, the ICC president, is expected to hold behind-the-scenes discussions with officials of member boards on how to resolve the issue.

While the BCCI has clearly stated that there are no plans for a further meeting with ICL, Subhash Chandra, the league's owner, has written to Morgan asking him convene a board meeting by November 7 "and communicate to us the decision taken". "Alternatively, we will have no option but to initiate legal proceedings in the appropriate court of law," the letter says.

ICL officials say the letter was sent to Morgan on Thursday, after the meeting with the BCCI, but no confirmation was available from the ICC.

The letter claims Chandra was informed by Morgan, after the ICC board meeting, that Manohar had undertaken "to sit with ICL officials and resolve the matter."

"I am told that Manohar also mentioned in the board meeting that the ICL has not so far made any formal request to the BCCI for recognition," the letter says. It adds that when such a request was presented to Manohar during Thursday's meeting, the BCCI president, who is also a well-known lawyer, "refused" to see it. Chandra also claimed that Manohar said the Indian board would deal with him only if he disassociated himself from the ICL, a proposal Chandra says he rejected.

"We strongly feel and are of the view that such an attitude and behaviour of your member board in India is against the very essence of natural justice and infringes the very basic right of preventing an individual from earning his livelihood," the letter says.

Asking the ICC to take the initiative in granting the league approval, the letter says the issue "needs to be resolved by ICC as the conflict is affecting many cricket-playing countries and not only India".

Since its inception, the ICL has seen strong opposition from the BCCI, which has banned players associated with the league from all forms of official cricket and barred them from using any of its facilities. The ICL has, meanwhile, been pressing the ICC unsuccessfully for official recognition of their venture for several months. Subsequently they requested the ICC for a meeting, and Subhash Chandra, who owns the league, met David Morgan, the ICC president, in London last week to present its case.

The ICL believes that it has a strong case for recognition under Rule 32 of the ICC operating manual that deals with authorised unofficial cricket such as the Hong Kong Sixes event and the Stanford 20/20 in the West Indies. However, two senior BCCI officials - Manohar and Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman - are on a five-man ICC sub-committee that has worked on modifying the rules for official and unofficial cricket.