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tournament is the first of 18 ICC events over the organisation’s
new commercial period of 2007 – 2015. The period includes
two ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments, in the Asian sub-continent
(Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) in 2011 and Australasia
(Australia and New Zealand) four years later.
The
International Cricket Council also today indicated it would
not recognize the Indian Cricket League, though it said any
sponsor was free to hold cricketing events within the country.
Speed said recognition to any new organization was only possible
after consulting the existing member in that country, in this
case the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).
Speed said he had forecast two years ago that many sponsors
would come forward to promote cricket in every country, and
so he was not surprised that this was happening.
But he said that the Indian Cricket League promoted by Subhash
Chandra had not yet applied to seek recognition of the ICC
for hosting a domestic Twenty 20 series. However, if it did
so, the ICC would first refer the matter to the BCCI.
Other
criteria applied by the ICC for granting recognition included
verifying who were playing in the game, whether the venue
was safe from the security point of view, and whether the
interest of the sponsor was charitable or developmental.
He said there was no reason to stop ICL from sponsoring a
series within the country, but ICC would only work with BCCI.
And he added that the ICC would not recognize a body which
was only using retired players.
Meanwhile, Speed said the ICC had applied to the International
Olympics Association for membership. Answering a query, he
said that whenever approved, the Twenty 20 series would be
ideal for the Olympics games since they took less time than
the one-dayers.
"The aim was to keep cricket alive. If test matches proved
too long, the one-dayers brought in the money. The Twenty
20 will bring a range of new audiences," Speed added.
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