SLC 'surprised, hurt' by BCCI no to SLPL

The BCCI has refused to issue No Objection Certificates to the 12 Indian players, who wanted to participate in the SLPL, saying that the event is being organised by a private party on behalf of SLC.

"This tournament is approved by SLC. And Somerset are the marketing arm, having won the rights through a tender process. Nobody can say it is owned by Somerset," its secretary Nishantha Ranatunga told 'ESPNcricinfo' website.

"We need to explain the matter to the BCCI and whatever the concerns that they have, we need to give them an explanation.

"It is very important to have them [Indian players] as they add a lot of value and glamour to the tournament," he added.

The SLPL will be played between July 19 and August 4 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Several foreign players including Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi, Daniel Vettori, Kevin O'Brien and Herschelle Gibbs have already been signed for the tournament.

The Indian players who wanted to participate are Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey and Paul Valthaty.

"We took the decision at an informal meeting of 18-20 members held yesterday that no Indian cricketer will be given permission to take part in the league as it is being organised by a private party based in Singapore. The Board's policy is not to allow players to take part in private party-organised tournaments," BCCI president Shashank Manohar stated.

Manohar said unless the Board gives them a No Objection Certificate, Indian players cannot participate in the Lankan Twenty20 league.

"We have to give them permission and we have decided not to give it. We have already informed the Sri Lanka Cricket about it," he elaborated.