Kapil Dev - AP NEW DELHI (AP):
India's World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev was sacked yesterday as head of the national academy for joining an unofficial league that has challenged the cricket board's authority.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said it had sacked former captain Dev from the honorary position as chairman of the National Cricket Academy with immediate effect.
The decision was made at the cricket board's special general meeting in Mumbai, a day after Dev released the list of 51 players who had signed up for the rival league.
The board also said it would debar all Indian players featuring in the rival Indian Cricket League, or ICL, from playing in domestic and international competitions.
Promoted by a television company, the ICL will feature six teams in Twenty-20 matches between October and November.
The rebel league has drawn a comparison with Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket that split the sport in the 1970s.
Appointment schedule
Dev's appointment was scheduled to run until the BCCI's annual general meeting on September 28.
Dev, captain of India's 1983 World Cup champion team, had dared the Indian board to sack him as chairman of the national academy, insisting he was doing nothing wrong by promoting cricket. Dev heads the ICL's executive board.
Sandip Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Sandhu, all members of the 1983 World Cup champion team, have joined Dev in signing up with the league. They have coaching assignments for the ICL teams that will feature foreign stars and Indian youngsters.
Following the BCCI directive that no member of the board should have any link with the ICL, former Test wicketkeeper Kiran More - who recently served as the chief national selector - quit his elected position as secretary of the Baroda Cricket Association.
The rebel league has rankled the cricket board, which warned players of a life ban and loss of financial benefits if they joined the unofficial event.
The Indian board's threat seems to have failed, as several former internationals and young state team players have signed up for the rival league.
Heading the list of seven foreign players who have already signed up for the ICL is former West Indies skipper Brian Lara, who retired from international cricket after West Indies failed to make the World Cup's semi-final in April.
The other foreign cricketers who have signed contracts to play in the ICL are Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat from Pakistan, and Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje of South Africa.
Among the Indian players who had decided to join the ICL are former internationals Dinesh Mongia, Deep Dasgupta, Jai Prakash Yadav, Reetinder Sodhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Thiru Kumaran.
