ICL 20s World Series to commence today

ICL offers Rs. 3.24 crores moolah as the prize money corpus for the event

The rebel Essel Group backed Indian Cricket League (ICL) is on a roll at the moment as they announced the prize money corpus of Rs. 3.24 crores on Tuesday for its latest 'ICL 20s World Series 2008’ mega-event starting today later in the evening at Hyderabad.

Announcing the prize money corpus of the event at a press conference in Hyderabad on Tuesday, the ICL revealed that the proud winner of this tournament would fetch whooping sum of Rs. 1.25 crore, the runner-up will receive Rs. 75 lakh while the side coming third will pocket Rs. 50 lakh.

In addition, the winner of every league match will pocket the handsome amount of Rs. 10 lakh, putting in total prize money of Rs. 60 lakh for the league stage only. The individual performers during the seven matches will also get an impressive amount of Rs. 2 lakh each for Man of the Match.

On the occasion, Kapil Dev, Chairman, Executive Board, Indian Cricket League (ICL) said, "The level of cricket at ICL is on an ascendancy mode. At the recently concluded Edelweiss 20s Challenge, we saw our boys come out with stand-out performances, which shaped the results of some high standard cricket matches.”

“With ICL 20s World Series 2008, our promising domestic boys will face the toughest challenge of proving their cricketing credentials against two of the mightiest teams in the world,” Kapil added.

R. Sathish will lead the formidable ICL India with former Australian wicket keeper Steve Rixon has been given the coaching responsibility of the Indian team. Inzamam Ul-Haq will lead the formidable ICL Pakistan team while Chris Cairns will lead a galaxy of international stalwarts representing ICL World.

Moin Khan will coach the formidable Pakistan side and former England off spinner John Emburey will coach the World team.

Former India wicket-keeper Kiran More, Executive Board Member, Indian Cricket League (ICL) said, "It is a full-filling experience to see the ICL make rapid strikes in terms of growing bigger and better in only its first year of operations.”

ICL 20s World Series 2008

ICL 20s World Series 2008 is a tri-series that will have three teams - ICL India, ICL Pakistan and ICL World vying for the coveted title. It will be staged from April 9 to 15 at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad.

The tournament will have a total of seven matches, with each team playing against each other twice, followed by finals. The high-octane 20-over format matches will be broadcasted LIVE on Ten Sports and Zee Sports from 7pm to 10pm.

ICL 20s WORLD SERIES TEAMS

ICL World: Chris Cairns (Captain), Mathew Elliot, Andrew Hall, Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent, Marvan, Atapattu, Russel Arnold, Damien Martin, Michael Kasprowicz, Upul Chandana, Chris Harris, Johan van der Wath, Ian Harvey, Jimmy Maher

Coach: John Emburey

ICL India: R.Sathish (Captain), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Ambati Rayudu, G.Vignesh, Abbas Ali, Rohan Gavaskar, Ravi Raj Patil, Stuart Binny, V.Sarvannan, Syed Mohammad, T.P.Singh, Ali Murtaza, Abu Nachiem, Thiru Kumaran, Love Ablish, Ibrahim Khaleel, T.Sudhindra

Coach: Steve Rixon

ICL Pakistan: Inzamam Ul Haq (Captain), Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Rana Naved Ul Hasan, Abdul Razzaq, Arshad Khan, Naveed Latif, Humayun Farhat, Shahid Nazir, Hasan Raza, Mohammed Sami, Imran Nazir, Riaz Afridi, Shabbir Ahmed

Coach: Moin Khan