Pawar asked to soften stand on ICL

A senior Indian politician, Digvijay Singh, has requested Sharad Pawar, the Indian board president, to stop opposing the Indian Cricket League and help promote it.

"Instead of taking a confrontationist stand you should act as a facilitator for the ICL to succeed. I am sure the objective of the BCCI is not to make millions but to popularise the game of cricket," wrote Singh, a general secretary of the ruling Congress party. "I am sure you will prevail upon the hardliners in the Board and make them understand sentiments of millions of cricket lovers in India."

"I don't know why he is pre-empting this. It's almost like apartheid. The BCCI is there for cricket and cricketers and not to look after [its own] members only," he told PTI.

Singh also stressed there was no hidden agenda in his letter, which was written in his personal capacity; he had, he said, written it as a cricket lover and not with the intention of taking on Pawar. He said he felt Pawar was being pressurised by his colleagues to take a confrontational stand towards the ICL.