The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ICC nod for IPL; ICL unofficial

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

ICC nod for IPL; ICL unofficial

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday gave its stamp of approval to the DLF-Indian Premier League (IPL) while refusing to recognise the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Announcing a host of decisions at the end of two-day meeting of the ICC Executive Board, President-elect David Morgan said IPL was official cricket just like the county championship in England, whereas ICL was unofficial as it was not approved by the BCCI.

Precedence

The Board made it clear that bilateral commitments of members would take precedence over IPL fixtures and BCCI would have to agree to certain guidelines.

“Each ICC member will have an unfettered right in its absolute discretion to lodge an objection to a player from its country playing in the IPL, and this objection can be lodged up to two years after that player’s retirement.

“All such objections will be respected by the IPL and its various franchises and the player in question will not be selected to play,” Morgan said.

The ICC Board also asked IPL to introduce a code of conduct, an anti-corruption code and an anti-doping code that comply with ICC regulations.

Regarding the 2011 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Pakistan, India Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the ICC decided upon a 14-team format and to significantly shorten the duration of the mega event than the last one in the West Indies.

The 10 full members qualify automatically, while the remaining four places will go to the semifinalists of the ICC Cricket World Cup qualifier, which will take place in Dubai next year.

The ICC also reiterated that “as of now” the Champions Trophy would be held in Pakistan and a full independent security assessment of the situation conducted in June.

Trial run

The Board also gave green signal to the trialling of the increased use of technology by umpires during the Test series between England and South Africa this year subject to the consent of the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket South Africa.

The trial will involve a system whereby players can request that umpiring decisions be reviewed by the TV umpire. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport