Desperate ICL Plays The National Card

Further evidence of the impetus accompanying 20-overs cricket came last week when a number of leading Bangladesh players, led by their most successful captain Habibul Bashar, retired from international and domestic cricket in order to play in the renegade Indian Cricket League.

The 13 Bangladesh cricketers who signed up for the ICL will be part of the Dhaka Warriors team who will take part in the second season of the ICL starting early October.

The ICL lacks the big names of its official counter-part the Indian Premier League. However, despite a number of stringent measures designed to kill it off, it looks set for another season at least.

The move towards national sides should attract support from the home countries and thus assist the profile and ultimately sponsorship of the league.

A similar team from Pakistan, the Lahore Badshahs is captained by Inzamam ul-Haq and plays to large television audiences in their homeland. The Bangladesh players have stated dissatisfaction with their board as their reason to retire. Left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain stated that he hadn't been enjoying his time playing cricket in the last year. "They don't think of us, so why should we think of them?" he asked.

Those who have played for the national team are expected to pocket around £100,000 each after signing three-year contracts, several times what they can ever expect to earn while playing for Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Board of Control reacted to the move by banning the players for 10 years.

This could have a serious impact on a national side that has always struggled, especially at Test level. The ICL have shrewdly suggested that the players would be released for national duty if requested.

But executive board member Ahmed Sajjadul Alam stringently stuck to the ban as a "deterrent" against others and rejected allegations from some of the ICL recruits that they were mistreated by the BCB as "ridiculous," adding that "these players should be honest and admit openly they did this just for the money."

"They have let down their country and its people and opted to join a commercial venture which will benefit a group of individuals and nobody else."

This argument loses some of its spite with the board placing its faith in the IPL and the Champions Twenty20 League to boost the game in Bangladesh.

The fact that the IPL benefits a group of individuals and nobody else was lost on a desperate Bangladesh board obviously turning to India and the mighty rupee for assistance.

This latest development will force the arm of the IPL who will now be caught between the prevention of other cricketers joining the ICL and the devaluing of their premier tournament with either weak sides or a token number of Bangladeshi players distributed to the IPL squads with little hope of playing for the actual sides as only four overseas players are permitted.

The interesting thing will be national allegiance if the ICL side achieves some successes—a lot easier in 20 overs cricket—than a national side that will undoubtedly be weakened. How long before critics further challenge Bangladesh's right to Test status?

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have traditionally sided with India in the politics of international cricket and to lose two could jeopardise plans for the sport's future development.

Further signs of cracks in the Indian stranglehold have come from the Sri Lankans, who have broken ranks with official guidelines by announcing that five of their cricketers and an umpire who last year signed up for the ICL will now be welcomed back to the domestic fold.

Change is afoot and it is not only the style and format of cricket that is under examination, but also what we have long considered national entities.

Only one thing is certain and that is that cricket will not be the same in 10 years time.