ICL Launches One Day League

ICL just refuses to stay down. After successfully finishing it's second T20 tournament within a year (which had a kickass second final which went down to a bowl-out), the ICl is all set to launch its ODI league.
The first edition will be a tri-series between the teams - ICL India (comprising of the best Indian players in the ICL), ICL Pakistan (mostly the Lahore Baadshahs Team who were the runners-up in the recently concluded T20 series and are a very strong team) and ICL World (comprising of the best international players in the ICL.

What I love about the ICL is that they gave the young Indian cricketers two seasons to play alongside senior international level players before pitting them against them thereby giving them ample time to get used to a higher level of cricket than run of the mill BCCI domestic matches.The results are already visible in ICL matches. One sees local young players clinching victories for their teams quite often in the ICL. Secondly the ICL wrapped its T20 league before the IPL came around thereby ensuring that there wouldn't be a clash of timings.

Say what you might about the ICL, but you cannot deny that it's doing good things for the sport. Players who would otherwise never get a chance to represent the national side now get an opportunity to play for 'Team India' (who cares whether its ICL India...wouldn't you cheer for them when they play against ICL Pakistan?). Slowly but surely, the ICL is improving its standards. The quality of the cricket is by no means boring and crowd responses are getting better too. In fact the T20 final saw a packed crowd (with a significant number up on the roofs and trees).

Regardless of whether you support the ICL or the IPL, one cannot disagree that this is good for cricket! Go ICL