 According
to the head of Zee Sports, Himanshu Mody, there is a chance that the company may
look to resume Indian Cricket League if things fell in place. Zee Sports
are the owners of the Indian Cricket League, which they had started four years
ago but had not been able to sustain till beyond 2008.
Mody said that the recent revelations from Lalit Modi, the former chairman
of the Indian Premier League had given them some extra ammunition for
the case that was in the court. Modi had said in an interview that BCCI had
decided to try and sink the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and threatened the other
cricket boards into doing the same.
Mody also said that the issue was in the court and that they were waiting to get
more information from Modi in order to help them understand how the BCCI killed
the ICL. He added that if Modi was able to do that, it will help them in the court
case and will make thing easier for them.
According to Mody, there were certain things that Modi said were not known to
the Zee Group.
Lalit Modi had earlier announced on Twitter on BCCI's propaganda on how they had
convinced and threatened the players, commentators, umpires and even the other
boards into banning players who were playing in the ICL to ensure that the tournament
did not get off the ground.
The BCCI had not recognised the league as official and the Zee Group had lodged
a court case against the BCCI which contested BCCI's right to represent "India".
Modi claimed that the BCCI was genuinely scared that the youngsters would end
up joining the ICL, which meant that they would give up on their Ranji team. It
had also meant that the ICL, which would have its matches around the same time
as the domestic tournaments, would get the players playing during those times
and the domestic cricket would be shorn of any known cricketers.
He also added that not all boards were happy with the decision to ban cricketers,
with the likes of England, Pakistan and Bangladesh having
even objected to it. For long, England had allowed their players to play in
the county leagues for the simple reason that their anti-labour laws did not
allow players to be banned like this.
It remains to be seen whether the ICL could resume operations given that they
are much in debt.
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