A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sacked Kapil Dev as the chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and made it clear that defectors to the Indian Cricket League would have no role to play in the Board’s activities, former Indian batsman and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) secretary Brijesh Patel said it was unthinkable that there could be a parallel board.

“You can’t have a parallel board,” Patel said when asked for his reactions to the BCCI’s diktat. “If they had wanted, the ICL could have sat down with the BCCI and requested them to be a part of their plans. In that case, everyone would have been in a win-win situation. They could have asked for the Board’s support and a few weeks’ time to carry out their programmes, and told the BCCI that they would pay them a fixed sum in return. Instead, the ICL chose to adopt a confrontational stance.

“The ICL will benefit those players who are on their way out and those that are not good enough to play for the country. Those who are good enough will certainly play for India.” The BCCI has issued a circular to all state associations, making its position on the ICL clear. “Boys who participate in the ICL will be debarred from playing even league games,” Patel said. “That applies to officials as well -- umpires, coaches and the like.”

Off-spinner EAS Prasanna will, therefore, have nothing to do with the KSCA in an official capacity. “He was our spin bowling coach at the Academy. He is also debarred; further, he is not eligible anymore for any benefits from the KSCA.”

Most of the former players who have linked up with the ICL have harped on the desire to ‘serve cricket’ as their reason for the jump. Almost all of them -- Kapil himself, Kiran More, Sandeep Patil, Balwinder Sandhu, Pranob Roy -- have been involved with the BCCI in some capacity or the other. Asked if they couldn’t have stayed on in the BCCI and ‘served cricket,’ Patel replied, “Perhaps they are getting more money, so maybe they will serve cricket better now!”

Viswanath added, “The BCCI has said that it will not encourage the ICL. It is up to the ICL to go through that. There is definitely going to be clash for now, but it remains to be seen how long the ICL can sustain itself.”