ECB happy with ICL collapse

After nearly a hundred players snapped ties with the Indian Cricket League,ECB chairman Giles Clarke has described the mass exodus as good news for international cricket.

79 out of 85 Indian and many foreign players ended their contract with the ICL after their respective home boards floated an amnesty offer.

If ICL is shown to be at an end then this is good news for international cricket. I have been vehemently against unauthorised cricket from the outset. It causes great problems for the game, the chief of England and Wales Cricket Board said.

Clarke was happy at the prospect of getting more players for the English counties. The collapse of ICL might well increase the number of international players available for English counties. Perhaps a county will think about signing a promising young Indian as an overseas player, he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

More players terminate contracts

Johannesburg: South African pacers Nantie Hayward and Johan van der Wath have returned to mainstream cricket under the auspices of CSA after terminating their ICL contracts. Players must terminate their contracts by 31 May 2009 if they wish to be eligible to play in next years Champions League or IPL. Hayward and Johan van der Wath have met these conditions and are now eligible to play under CSA auspices after the six-month cooling off period, Majola said. Hayward,Van der Wath and Kemp are all high-level products of CSAs system,and we are glad that they have decided to rejoin, he added.

Meanwhile,Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin snapped his ICL ties and committed to English county Surrey. Its the right move to resign my ICL contract and I want to give Sussex every opportunity of progressing as far as we can in cricket, Murray said.

NZC welcomes back rebels

Wellington: New Zealand Cricket cleared the way for fast bowler Shane Bond to return to international cricket by announcing on Thursday it would reinstate players who have severed all ties with ICL. Chief executive Justin Vaughan said the board of New Zealand Cricket had decided it would consider for national selection any player who had broken fully with the non-sanctioned Twenty20 league. Bond is the most high profile of the nine New Zealanders who have played in the ICL and the most likely player to quickly regain a place in the New Zealand team.

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The others Daryl Tuffey,Lou Vincent,Hamish Marshall,Andre Adams,Chris Cairns,Craig McMillan,Chris Harris and Adam Parore had either ended their international careers or were marginal selections when they joined ICL.