ICL hits back at BCCI, says it is stooping too low

The Indian Cricket League on Tuesday hit out at BCCI for "stooping too low" by luring its star player Brian Lara but claimed they were expecting the move before their Twenty20 tournament kicked off in Panchkula on November 30.

"We were expecting it. The BCCI can stoop low and do this. They tried to do it earlier as well by spreading rumours that Lara was planning to join them. However, you can see he has arrived here and will be playing," ICLs top executive Ashish Kaul told PTI in Chandigarh.

BCCI has said the door is open for Brian Lara to join next year's Indian Premier League but the West Indies batting great would have to first snap all ties with the Essel Group-backed rebel Twenty20 extravaganza.

Kaul, who is Executive Vice President of the Essel Group, said that instead of "blowing up millions of rupees in public money" on IPL, the Indian Cricket Board should instead pump in money to improve the state of affairs in domestic cricket.

"Contrary to our aim of promoting domestic cricket by giving cricketers at that level opportunities and allowing them to play with international players, IPL will be using public money to pay big international stars. Why don't they spend this money on Ranji Trophy or CK Naidu Trophy or other domestic events," he questioned.

He claimed that BCCI had now recognised what ICL was doing is right, "which is why it is now offering money to cricketers to woo them."

"They failed to administer cricket in this country with transparency and now they are using every tactic to create hurdles in our event, in which they will fail miserably," Kaul said.