ICL to begin on October 10

The next phase of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) will start on October 10, Kapil Dev, the chairman of the ICL executive board, has said. The number of teams and the venue of the tournament, which will be held days after the BCCI-backed Champions Twenty20 League ends and during Australia's of India, are yet to be decided.

The ICL has yet to find backing among the national cricket boards around the world but its status has become a contentious point among the ICC members. England allowed ICL players to play in the County Championship and therefore Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and a major force behind the Champions League, ruled out Kent's participation in the tournament because they had fielded ICL players Azhar Mahmood and Justin Kemp.

Kapil hoped the current deadlock would be broken for the betterment of the game. "We are giving jobs to people - to scorers, to administrators, to groundsmen - and more chances to young players. If anyone can convince me of doing something wrong and against the country, I will quit the ICL right away," he said. "The door should be open to everybody. If players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar emerge from the league, don't they deserve to play for the country?"

It was a sentiment shared by Steve Rixon, the former New Zealand coach currently in charge of one ICL team, the Hyderabad Heroes. "The IPL is an event. Ours has a bit more substance - more emphasis on our kids, on the local Indian players performing well and being as good as they can be and getting ready for the greater challenges. In our Hyderabad team, five Man-of-Match awards last season were bagged by Indian players. The ICL is promoting domestic talent more than the IPL. We started first and I guess we had the first crack at the best of the young talent in this country."

The existing situation, Rixon said, was "hypocritical" and hoped for recognition and an amicable settlement with the ICC. "There is a bit of hypocrisy. Sachin Tendulkar played in Lashings with an ICL player [Dinesh Mongia]. Will the BCCI ban Tendulkar? It's time to sit down and have a rethink. You can't be hypocritical and say the players can play in English leagues but they can't do it here. And you can't ban ICL players from playing in the counties and leagues."

However, he was hopeful of a peaceful closure. "I still believe that at some stage the ICL will be recognised, and it would be in the best interests of all the young cricketers. They have to be ready when it happens and part of my job is to ensure that. Everyone would like to play in the Ranji Trophy again, especially the longer version."

The October tournament will be the first since the hugely successful debut IPL season, but Rixon didn't believe the ICL would suffer by comparison. "It is only going to get bigger," he said. "More people are getting exposed to the game and I think they will say, 'I have seen IPL, let's see how ICL respond'."

"The players' motivation has only got stronger. They know, if they don't perform here and if they are dropped, they can't go back to play under the BCCI. You can be rest assured that ICL performances are going to get even better this season."

Both Kapil and Rixon believed that the quality of cricket would eventually judge the success or failure of ICL. "If we can replicate what happened last season, I would say we are doing well," said Kapil. "If the cricket is interesting and of good quality, the ICL would be a success."