By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
New Delhi : The issue of the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) surprisingly does not feature on the agenda of the Indian cricket board’s working committee that meets in Mumbai Tuesday.
The eight-point agenda, a copy of which is with IANS, does not list Zee group’s ICL, which named Monday the 44 Indian and six foreign players who will play in the league this winter.
By announcing the players’ names, Zee has given an opportunity to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to initiate action against the rebel players.
But it seems the board does not want to show that it is panicking in the face of Zee group chief Subhash Chandra’s league of “inevitable necessity”, as he terms it.
“It is clear that the BCCI does not want to show that it is worried or concerned by the launch of the ICL. That could be the only explanation as to why the issue has not been included in the agenda,” said a top official of a BCCI-affiliated association.
BCCI has been dillydallying on taking a firm stand on the ICL that threatens to take the sheen away from its sanctioned tournaments from October when the 2007-08 domestic season opens.
The ICL will be telecast on Zee Sports and could clash with the Australian and Pakistani tours to India in October-November, the period in which Zee plans to stage the ICL Twenty20 matches.
Among the issues listed on the BCCI agenda are: to consider and approve the draft annual report of the years 2006-07, to approve the audited statement of accounts for the year ending March 31, 2007, to consider and approve the draft annual budget for 2007-08, and fix the date and venue of the agenda for the annual meeting.
The official said that the BCCI would most probably discuss the ICL issue under the last item on the agenda.
“Any matter that is not listed is often discussed under ‘any other business with the permission of the chair’, which is a permanent agenda item for all meetings,” he said.
“It is quite apparent that they do not want to tell the world that they were scared of the ICL. That way it is understandable that ICL is not listed specifically in the main agenda,” the official said.
The BCCI top brass, which gathered in Mumbai Monday, is believed to have discussed the issue informally.
On Tuesday, the working committee meeting would precede the special general body meeting – both at the BCCI headquarters housed at Wankhede Stadium.
This would be the last working committee meeting before the annual general body meeting, usually held in the last week of September.