CricketViewer.com

The ICL has accepted the resignations of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq, paving the way for their return to official cricket, possibly as early as Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka which starts in late June.

While some national boards have set a ‘cooling period’ before players associated with the ICL are considered for selection, the PCB is accepting both players into official cricket immediately. “They are available for selection now and that is a good thing,” Wasim Bari, director HR of the PCB, who has been handling the ICL cases, told Cricinfo. “Cooling period doesn’t come into it.”

The ICL has decided to release around 50 players who had sought a return to official cricket. Those released are believed to include New Zealand’s Shane Bond, Pakistan’s Imran Nazir and Naved-ul-Hasan, Bangladesh’s Habibul Bashar and Deep Dasgupta, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Hemang Badani from India.

The league will now adopt a two-pronged strategy: start activities afresh by holding talent identification camps and clinics at the six grounds that it controls in India, and pursue legally the ICC’s refusal to grant it recognition.

Habibul Bashar, the former Bangladesh captain, has informed the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that he has severed all ties with the unauthorised ICL and would like to return to official cricket, according to a senior official. The BCB’s doors are now open for other ICL cricketers from Bangladesh to return, Mohammad Jalal Yunus, BCB board member, said.

“Bashar has written to the BCB president that he wants to come back,” Yunus, who heads the BCB’s media committee, told Cricinfo. “We are happy to welcome him back once it is confirmed that he has severed all ties with the ICL.”

Fast bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has joined players such as Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Yousuf in wanting to quit the ICL and return to Pakistan provided the PCB takes some initiative in recalling them. Naved said there has been no clear communication between the PCB and the ICL players despite Razzaq and Yousuf also offering to cancel their contracts and make themselves available for national selection.

Mohammad Yousuf has claimed that he has “resigned” from the ICL after he decided last month that his priority was to play for Pakistan. The move potentially paves the way for Yousuf’s comeback to the national side, as the PCB recently announced it was willing to talk to players who leave the ICL before the end of May and consider their cases for an international return on an individual basis.

“I spoke to Younis [Khan] about a month and a half ago and I resigned from the ICL after that,” Yousuf told Cricinfo. “We both talked about how the country comes first and playing for them is the priority so I decided. I am available whenever the country needs me.”

The BCCI has announced an “amnesty” to all Indian players associated with the ICL and said that they can return to official cricket if they cut all ties with the unofficial private league within May 31. The players who chose to return to the official fold will be eligible to play international cricket after a ‘cooling period’ of a year, but can play domestic cricket from June 1, when the ICC’s new rules on official and unofficial cricket come into force.

It’s learnt that other national boards who have banned their ICL players from official cricket are expected to follow suit. The Indian board announced its decision after a meeting of its working committee in Mumbai.

The ICC has warned players against signing up for a new unauthorised league being established in the USA.

The American Premier League, the brainchild of local entrepreneur Jay Mir, is a Twenty20 tournament scheduled to be held in October on a converted baseball field in Staten Island, New York City. Although there remains some uncertainty about the whole venture, it is believed that a number of current and former players have been approached to take part.

The ICC has rejected the Indian Cricket League’s application for official recognition and has said the status of the league’s players will be decided by individual member boards.

The decision was taken by the ICC at its board meeting in Dubai on Saturday. The application had been filed last year by the ICL, which is owned by India’s largest media group, Zee Telefilms, and is not recognised by the Indian board or the ICC.

A statement from the ICC said it had examined the application against existing criteria for approving such requests, including whether the home board’s approval had been secured.

Following a dramatic flip-flop by the Pakistan Cricket Board over picking three ICL players in its list of probables for the ICC World Twenty20, a top PCB official told Cricinfo that administrators are considering a “cooling period” ranging between six to 12 months for players who wish to return to national teams from the unauthorised league.

Salim Altaf, PCB’s chief operating officer, said that such a cooling period would be on the lines of the ban that was imposed on cricketers who went on rebel tours to South Africa during the Apartheid era. “Of course, the ICC’s executive board (it meets in Dubai on April 17-18) will have to take a final decision,” he said.

Six months after he turned his back on New Zealand cricket, Shane Bond has said he misses the game and is priming himself for a first-class return for Canterbury next season. The ICL is willing to release some of its foreign players from their contracts so they can play international cricket for a short period, and Bond was hopeful that his ban would come to and end.