ICL Calendar for the year 2008

• February 08 Domestic Championship 50 Over tournament Indian players to play.

• March – April 08 ICL Grand Championship 20 20 Over Tournament 8 Teams to participate in the tournament. Increase of 2 Teams.

• April – May 08 ICL to Open Academies in prominent cities.

• September – October 08 ICL Invitation Cup 20 20 Over Tournament 8 Teams to participate in the tournament.

• November – December 08 ICL 20 20 Indian Championships 2nd Edition. 20 20 Over Tournament 8 Teams to participate in the tournament.

PCB bans Pakistan's ICL players

The Pakistan Cricket Board has banned players who participated in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) from playing in the ongoing domestic season. Six Pakistan players - Inzamam-ul-Haq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Shabbir Ahmed, Imran Farhat and Taufiq Umar - appeared in the inaugural tournament of the ICL earlier this month.

Nasim Ashraf, PCB chairman, told the players on Monday that they cannot represent Pakistan or play domestic cricket at home. "When those players signed up to play in the ICL and went to India to take part in that tournament they were fully aware of the consequences," Ashraf told the News.

"We were very clear about our policy about the ICL and they [the players] knew that they would be automatically banned from playing cricket in Pakistan if they took part in the league. We have banned the players in line with the uniform policy adopted by all the leading boards around the world," he said.

"It is a policy decision that players who play in unauthorised leagues cannot be allowed to play in any domestic competition organised by the PCB," Shafiq Ahmed, the PCB domestic cricket general manager, said. "We cannot allow violation of our rules and regulations by anyone. We don't think it is a harsh decision."

However, the players believe that the PCB's stance is harsh and some of them are threatening to take legal action against the Board.

Reacting to the ban, Farhat told Reuters, "Cricket is our bread and butter. This is a violation of our fundamental rights." He said the players would take legal action and try to obtain a stay on the ban.

On Saturday, the Indian board had stated its displeasure with Daryl Tuffey, the New Zealand fast bowler and an ICL recruit, being allowed to represent his state side Auckland in a 50-over match against the visiting Bangladesh side.

Chennai Superstars crowned ICL 20:20 Champions

The Chennai Superstars have won the introductory ICL Indian 20:20 Championship amidst an electrifying ambiance, in majestic style, defeating the Chanidgarh Lions by 12 runs in the grand finale. Hat-trick hero Shabbir Ahmed was the star bowler for the triumphant team, claiming four wickets, inclusive of a hat-trick.

Ian Harvey was adjudged the player of the series for his fantastic overall performance throughout the tournament. The versatile Australian all-rounder emerged as the leading run-scorer in the competition by scoring 266 runs in 7 matches. He also took 9 wickets to add to the spectacular starts he had provided to the Chennai Superstars with the bat.

Shabbir Ahmed achieved a hat-trick during the 13th over when he came back for his second spell. He had already dismissed Hamish Marshall earlier and claimed the wickets of Chetan Sharma and Dinesh Mongia to compete the first and only hat-trick of the inaugural season.

The courageous Sarbajeet Singh (28) was dismissed off the very last delivery by Ian Harvey when the wicket-keeper batsman smashed the ball to the deep mid wicket boundary and the catch was safely pounced by Ganapathi Vignesh.

All eyes were on Ian Harvey who was under pressure to bowl the very last over with the Lions requiring an improbable 23 runs to win. Sarabjeet Singh and Andrew Hall continued to find the boundary, but unfortunately for them, there was too much left for them to do, to attain victory. It was too thorny to pave a path for revival after the Superstars bowlers rocked the Lions middle-order.

Full Scorecard

ICL Twenty20 Indian Championship ( 2007 - 08 )

30 Nov 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Delhi Jets
1st Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chandigarh Lions won by 9 runs
Scorecard

01 Dec 2007 Chennai Superstars vs Kolkata Tigers
2nd Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chennai Superstars won by 6 runs
Scorecard

01 Dec 2007 Mumbai Champs vs Hyderabad Heroes
3rd Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Hyderabad Heroes won by 33 runs
Scorecard

02 Dec 2007 Delhi Jets vs Hyderabad Heroes
4th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Delhi Jets won by 5 wickets
Scorecard

02 Dec 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Kolkata Tigers
5th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Kolkata Tigers won by 43 runs
Scorecard

03 Dec 2007 Chennai Superstars vs Mumbai Champs
6th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chennai Superstars won by 38 runs
Scorecard

05 Dec 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Hyderabad Heroes
7th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chandigarh Lions won by 6 wickets
Scorecard

07 Dec 2007 Delhi Jets vs Mumbai Champs
8th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Delhi Jets won by 24 runs
Scorecard

08 Dec 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Chennai Superstars
9th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chennai Superstars won by 4 wickets
Scorecard

08 Dec 2007 Delhi Jets vs Kolkata Tigers
10th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Kolkata Tigers won by 4 wickets
Scorecard

09 Dec 2007 Chennai Superstars vs Hyderabad Heroes
11th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Hyderabad Heroes won by 7 wicktes
Scorecard

09 Dec 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Mumbai Champs
12th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chandigarh Lions won by 38 runs
Scorecard

10 Dec 2007 Mumbai Champs vs Kolkata Tigers
13th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Mumbai Champs won by 7 runs
Scorecard

12 Dec 2007 Chennai Superstars vs Delhi Jets
14th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Delhi Jets won by 6 wickets
Scorecard

12 Dec 2007 Hyderabad Heroes vs Kolkata Tigers
15th Twenty20 Match, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Kolkata Tigers won by 53 runs
Scorecard

14 Dec 2007 Kolkata Tigers vs Chennai Superstars
Semi Final 1, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chennai Superstars won by 93 runs
Scorecard

15 Dec 2007 Hyderabad Heroes vs Mumbai Champs
5 / 6 Classification, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Hyderabad Heroes won by 25 runs
Scorecard

15 Dec 2007 Chandigarh Lions vs Delhi Jets
Semi Final 2, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chandigarh Lions won by 4 wickets
Scorecard

16 Dec 2007 Kolkata Tigers vs Delhi Jets
3 / 4 Classification, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Delhi Jets won by 5 wickets
Scorecard

16 Dec 2007 Chennai Superstars vs Chandigarh Lions
Final, Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium, Panchkula, Chandigarh
Chennai Superstars won by 12 runs
Scorecard

Coaches

The coach is seen as an important cog in the functioning of modern cricket. At the junior level, a good coach will crucially instill in his pupils a good work ethic; he will also correct potentially crippling flaws in technique. However, technique usually needs only fine-tuning, so the coach's main job is to methodically analyze and interpret data obtained from actual match situations.

So on one hand he may draw a bowler's attention to his shortcomings and advise a batsman on specific tactics to upset the rhythm of a particular opposition bowler. The coaches will also have access to state of the art video recording software to assist them perform on their duties.

Balwinder Sandhu Coach, Chandigarh Lions: Balwinder Singh (born August 3, 1956, Bombay) was a member of “Kapils Devils”, the 1983 world cup winning team. A wonderful swing bowler Sandhu started the slide in the final by getting out Gordon Greenidge.

Sandhu has also played 8 test matches for India. After his playing days Sandhu got into coaching and has coached mumbai and punjab and also has served the NCA. The Director of Academies for the ICL Sandhu has conducted camps for the ICL youngsters and now has taken over as the coach for Chandigarh Lions.

Daryll Cullinan, Kolkata Tigers: Daryll John Cullinan (born 4 March 1967, Kimberley, Cape Province) is a former South African cricketer, who played Test cricket and one-day internationals for South Africa as a specialist batsman.

He was the youngest South African to score a first class century, at the age of 16. A batsman of the highest quality Cullinan holds the record for the highest score in first class South African cricket. Cullinan considers the assignment to coach the Kolkata Tigers as one of the toughest assignments.

Madan Lal, Delhi Jets: Madan Lal Udhouram Sharma (born March 20, 1951, Amritsar, India) is a former international cricketer (1974-1987) from India. He enjoyed great success at the first class level scoring over 10,000 runs and taking over 600 wickets.

He played 31 Test matches for India, scoring 1,042 runs at an average of 22.65, taking 71 wickets at 40.08 and holding 15 catches. He was a fairly competent lower order bat , often extricating India from tricky situations which earned him the nickname, Maddat Lal by grateful Indian fans.

Madan Lal bowled the first ball to Dennis Amiss of England in the 1975 World Cup.

Michael Bevan, Chennai Superstars: Michael Gwyl Bevan (born 8 May 1970 in Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory) is a former Australian left-handed cricket batsman and a slow left arm chinaman bowler. He was widely regarded as one of the finest ODI batsman in the world for his ability to see out a match, and his phenomenal average.
He played 232 ODI matches for Australia, and was a part of the 1999 and 2003 teams that won the World Cup. In addition to being a brilliant fielder, Bevan was among the best finishers in the One day game winning many matches for Australia batting with the tail. Bevan will coach the Chennai superstars.

Moin Khan, Hyderabad Heroes: Moin Khan (born September 23, 1971) is a former Pakistan captain and an integral part of the 1992 World Cup winning team.
He reaped rich success for his innovating batting and played numerous match-winning knocks for Pakistan, especially in limited-overs cricket. He has taken over 100 catches in Test cricket. He has scored over 3,000 ODI runs and taken over 200 catches in ODI cricket.

The former Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman will coach the team that has former teammates Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood.

Sandeep Patil, Mumbai Champs: Sandeep Madhusudan Patil (born August 18, 1956, Bombay, now Mumbai) is a former cricketer who played for India between 1980 and 1986. A dashing batsman and a useful medium-pace bowler, Sandip Patil was a tower of strength to the Indian middle order for many years.
His good looks (he was a pop singer and a film actor), aggressive batsmanship and a penchant for big hits made Patil a natural crowd puller. An instant success after making his Test debut and on his first tour, he took 174 off Dennis Lillee and Len Pascoe at Adelaide.

A stalwart for Bombay for several years, Patil in the last few seasons of his first-class career captained Madhya Pradesh with much success. After retirement, Patil served first as India A coach, then coach of the Indian team, before moving on to take charge of Kenya. A man of many talents, Patil has also edited a Marathi sports magazine, Ekach Shatkar, and wrote Sandy Storm, his autobiography.

Structure of ICL ( Indian Cricket League )

• 6 teams to start with expansion to 16 teams by the third year
  
• Teams to represent the entire geography of the nation
  
• Start with the Twenty20 format and progress to the 50 over format
  
• Each team would have a dedicated support staff consisting of trainers, physiotherapist, dietician and a media manager
  

There will initially be six teams taking part in a league format that leads up to semi finals and finals. By the third year, the ICL promises to increase to 16 teams that comprehensively represent all of India. The matches will be held in both ODI as well as 20:20 format with all the teams playing home and away.

Each team will also have first and second division sides so as to maximize talent utilization. These teams will be regularly sent to international cricket playing nations so that psychologically they are well prepared to take on the world of cricket. The ICL will be run by an Executive Board which will comprise of the top names of Indian and international cricket, and have the final say in all matters of the league and be responsible for running it.

There will also be a Rules Committee and an umpires/match referees panel made up of internationally reputed names. Each ICL team will comprise a mixture of International and Indian budding cricketers. There will also be a mentor attached to each team who will function as the coach and main motivator for the individual team. This is most likely to be an ex-Indian cricketer from that particular region. There will also be physiotherapist, trainers and dieticians attached to each team to ensure fitness regimen.