NDTV.com: ICL announces new signings

ICL announces new signings

NDTV Correspondent

Monday, August 20, 2007 (Mumbai)

The Indian Cricket League on Monday officially announced the names of its contracted players.

Kapil Dev has been appointed as the ICL Executive Board Chairman while Erapalli Prasanna has also joined the rebel league's executive board.

Speaking at the press conference, the former Indian captain said the recruits were free to play for India whenever they want to.

There are 41 players from India, including as many as five former India cricketers.

The biggest names come from across the border with former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammadd Yousuf becoming the star signings for the new league.

Brian Lara, the former West Indies captain, had been named as an ICL player last month.

The surprise name from Pakistan, although, is Mohammad Yousuf who had a brilliant 2006, when he scored 9 Test centuries and set a new record for most runs scored in a calendar year.

Inzamam-ul Haq was out of favour with the PCB and was not offered a central contract by the board must have seen this as an opportunity to extend his career.

Imran Farhat gave back his contract to the PCB. His decision could have been motivated by economic considerations, seeing he was unable to cement his place on the side

Abdur Razzak of course announced his retirement from cricket in protest of being left out of the Twenty20 World Cup squad.

The big Indian names include Dinesh Mongia, who has been in and out of the Indian national side in the last few years. Deep Dasgupta, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Dheeraj Jadhav have also signed on the dotted line.

Dinesh Mongia said that he is looking forward to the new innings with the ICL.

The two South Africans in question are Lance klusener, who is without doubt past his prime and Nicky Boje, who could have trouble playing in India as he had opted out of a tour to India three years ago because of match-fixing allegations.

And, unlike the Team India players, who are barred from speaking to media, the ICL organisers have made it clear that there will be no media gag on players.

ICL team:

Indian players: Rayudu, Abbas Ali, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abhishek T, Alfred Francis, Ali Murtaza, Abhishek Yadav, Deep Das Gupta, Devendran, Dheeraj Jadhav, Dinesh Mongia, Hemant Kumar, Chandrashekhar Reddy, Ishan Malhotra, J Harish, Jai Prakash Yadav, Kaushik Reddy, Laxmi Rattan Shukla, Manish Sharma, Mohammad Ibrahim, Manish Mishra, Pushkraj Joshi, R Sathish, Rajesh Sharma, RR Patil, Reetinder Sodhi, Robin Morris, Sachin Dholpure, Sarabhjeet Singh, Syed Akhalikh, Shalabh Srivastava, Sreesant Nag, Shiv Sagar Singh, Shreyas Khandolkar, Subhajit Paul, Subramoy Das.

Pakistani players: Inzamam-ul Haq, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Yousuf.

South African players: Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje.

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