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Zee out to 'save' Indian cricket

New Delhi: Media giants Zee Telefilms Ltd on Tuesday announced a breakaway cricket series in the mould of the erstwhile Kerry Packer's Circus, parallel to the functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Revealing the details, Zee Telefilms Chairman Subhash Chandra said in the Capital that his company has set up an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore for the event, christened the Indian Cricket League.

It is also believed that some contracted and non-contracted players have already been signed up for the one of a kind event.

The first games will be in the Twenty20 format. There will be six teams in the league to begin with.

"We will start with the Twenty20 format keeping in mind the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa later this year, and one-day internationals will come later," Chandra said.

Chandra claimed that there will be four international players in each of the teams, while two Indian players and eight promising talents will make up the rest of each team.

Each team will be coached by an ex-India player. He also added that their mission was to create a talent pool of cricketers. "If BCCI wants to draw talent from this pool, they are most welcome."

The set-up will also create cricket academies headed by a National Director of Academies. Essel Group, partners with Zee Telefilms in the breakaway programme, will create a national talent reserve bench for Indian cricket as well.

All states will appoint cricket experts as talent scouts. They will identify talent in their respective areas.

He also said that the League is not being introduced as a conflicting event to the BCCI, but it will act as a support system to it.

The Indian Cricket League is expected to start somewhere between July-August, 2007.

Source:- Cricket News - Zee out to 'save' Indian cricket