David O'Leary Posted 20 August 2007 Posted 20 August 2007 BBC Site Pakistan trio Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq head a list of stars joining the rebel Indian league. Former South Africa players, Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje, Indian batsman Dinesh Mongia and Pakistan opener Imran Farhat have have also signed contracts. Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka will ban participants from their national teams. Inzamam, 37, quit the Test captaincy abd one-day internationals after the World Cup but had been expected to continue playing as a batsman. He and his countrymen join former West Indies captain Brian Lara in becoming high-profile participants in the rebel league, which will initially feature Twenty20 matches played over two months over the next three years. Australian duo Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have also been linked with this year's competition, which begins in October. The ICL paraded 44 Indian first-class cricketers at Monday's media conference. Officials refused to divulge the sums being paid to players, but one source said they were "more than enough to make the players happy." Media reports said some domestic cricketers, who earned a maximum of 500,000 rupees [$12,200] from the Indian cricket board (BCCI) during a season, were reportedly being given nine million rupees [$220,000] by the ICL for three years. "Our focus is to entertain the people of our country who sometimes only see Test cricket, they don't see any other cricket," ICL chairman and former India captain Kapil Dev said. "I think these boys have the ability and the talent." Meanwhile the BCCI says it will increase fees for domestic cricketers by 20%, but insists the threat of the ICL is not the reason for the rise.
Ultra Posted 20 August 2007 Posted 20 August 2007 I'm surprised Yousuf is going for this. He's one of the world's top Test batsmen, so it must have taken a shedload of rupees for him to end his international career now. The rest of the players mentioned in the article were pretty much on the decline anyway. Unless the organisers can poach anyone from the current India team, they're likely to have a few credibility issues.
David O'Leary Posted 20 August 2007 Author Posted 20 August 2007 Unless the organisers can poach anyone from the current India team, they're likely to have a few credibility issues. saying that, they do have Brian Lara and Warne and McGrath are expected to sign soon
Geo V Posted 20 August 2007 Posted 20 August 2007 Wont the Pakistani fans turn on their players now? Surely they better start saving pillows and stuff to get an effigy ready the size of Inzi??!!
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