Brian Lara has become the first big-name signing for the Indian Cricket League, which announced today that it has also contracted former Indian allrounder Madan Lal to coach its Delhi team and Balwinder Singh Sandhu as director of academies.

Lara, who retired from international cricket after the World Cup earlier this year, said he looked forward to playing with promising youngsters and to captaining one of the teams. "You can't keep me too far from cricket and hence I return to the game in this exciting new avatar", Lara said in a statement issued by the Essel Group, promoters of the ICL.

Lara's joining the ICL had first been reported in May and at the time the names of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath had also been linked with the league.