Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A silver lining

There is an upside to the Champions League. It will force a legal resolution of the issue of whether ICL players can turn out for their teams in the tourney or not. Lalit Modi says they can't. The counties will face lawsuits if they try and prevent their players. Then what? Will Modi prevent the counties from playing? Will the ECB let Modi pick and choose which sides can play? (Yes, I'm presuming the player's case against the counties will prevail; given that the counties weren't able to restrict them in other ways that Modi would have liked, I don't see why this should work). If the ECB says "fine, have it your way, counties with ICL players won't be permitted", then I suggest the ECB could be facing more legal trouble of its own. Not a bad time to be a sports lawyer.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Samir,

One other option would be that as long as the players are governed by European law, they can play county cricket but when it comes to the Champions Trophy, counties will have to jettison the ICL players..

So, for the English domestic season, the ICL contracted players play for their respective counties but for the Champions League, these very same players will not be considered for selection

Cheers,

6:12 PM  
Blogger Samir Chopra said...

Homer, if I was an ICL player, I would ask the counties to explain how they could legally exclude them from one tournament while playing them in other matches. If my corporation refuses to consider me for particular opportunities within the scope of my employment thats discrimination (and in this case, the same argument that prevented the counties from banning the players would hold).

8:35 AM  
Blogger Som said...

The Shit Midas leading cricketing world to a holy mess. we have not seen the end of it yet.

11:15 PM  

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