Grim Reality

To date, no one has expressed precisely how the ICL, or those involved with it, will harm cricket or at least harm it in any way different to how the IPL might.Players who signed up for ICL have not only been banished from international cricket, but possibly will be banished from first-class cricket, and any other means they have of making a living.Some have been prevented from carrying out their broadcast commitments because of their ICL involvement. Soon media outlets might be barred from covering matches because they have given coverage to the ICL.Al Qaeda has a new friend in the form of ICL signatories and it shudn't come as a real surprise if George W Bush bans the ICL in all forms in the forseeable future. Organisations that employ ICL players - banks have been advised to terminate those players' contracts. If this isn't a witch-hunt, what is?. In any case, in Pakistan and India, where the PCB and the BCCI have arguably harmed the game more than nurtured it, who or what is to say their monopoly can't at least be questioned?
The BCCI is the only board to benefit financially from the IPL and it is the only board to stand to lose if the ICL thrives.These men are not dopers, or match-fixers but are those who have served cricket honourably. Some do not see an international, and thus lucrative, future ahead of them, so they choose to somehow secure themselves financially. Some are just plain greedy. But what have they really done to have their careers sabotaged? Legal action may be inevitable. It is sad, for these are not matters where a hammer is needed, where force is deployed. On the contrary, the players running around in the IPL, it will be the numbers in their bank accounts that will hold more value than those on the pitch.
Welcome to the new world!