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Official and rebel cricketers mingle at Hong Kong Sixes

By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS

Hong Kong : Brian Lara is the biggest name that the Indian Cricket League (ICL) boasts of and Shane Warne the most prominent player to have turned down an offer from the rebel league. He has signed up with the ‘official’ Indian Premier League (IPL) floated by the Indian cricket board instead. But the two have now come together in Hong Kong.

They are in the same All Stars team at the Cathay Pacific-Standard Chartered Hong Kong Sixes tournament.

Then there is the curious case of an official coach of the Indian cricket team, Robin Singh, leading an ‘Indian’ team, which has a ‘rebel’ Reetinder Singh Sodhi who was among the first to sign up with the ICL.

In Hong Kong, no one is really talking about the ICL started by Zee television network boss Subhas Chandra or the IPL floated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). People are simply soaking in the atmosphere at the cosy little Kowloon Cricket Club right in the heart of this city. Yet, it is well known that many of the cricket boards may be dead against the ICL.

Considering how touchy the Indian board is, one wonders what they would have to say about ‘mixing’ and ‘playing’ alongside ‘rebel’ players.

Now that their official cricket careers are over, Lara and Warne couldn’t care much, but the boards will have a lot to think about.

And by the way, the Hong Kong Sixes has had some kind of an implicit ‘green signal’ from the International Cricket Council.

The All Stars team includes Craig McMillan, who has retired from international cricket and is rumoured to have been approached by ICL. There was also talk of another All Stars member Glenn McGrath joining the league, though nothing official has been announced on that account. And yes, Anil Kumble, also in All Stars, is still very much part of the Indian Test side.

But for this weekend, the ‘rebels’, as the ICL players have been labelled by the official boards, and those who have not signed with ICL or have done so with the Indian Premier League (IPL) are happy to co-exist.

Some of the teams have been chosen officially by their respective cricket boards and the prominent ones are Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and South Africa, who are believed to have omitted a player who had signed with ICL.

The Indian squad here is said to have been put together by Robin Singh, a ‘HK Sixes’ regular. Apart from Sodhi, the side also has Ajay Jadeja, who in the past has fallen foul of the board and even served a five-year suspension.

Then there is Nikhil Chopra, who was also not on the friendliest of terms with the Indian board, Sunil Joshi, Sanjay Bangar and Rohit Bhatia, who played for both Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

The New Zealand side has Nathan Astle, a prominent sign-up with the ICL and the England team has Darren Maddy, who also recently signed on the dotted line with the ICL. The England team is managed by Mike Gatting, who went with another rebel side to South Africa a couple of decades ago.