And finally, there is Lalu Prasad Yadav, the president of the Bihar Cricket Association who, wearing his alternate hat as minister for railways, bails the ICL out by offering the nascent league the use of grounds belonging to the Indian Railways.
This move comes on the back of interesting developments: Over the last week or two, there has been some background buzz that the politically well-connected Zee boss Subhash Chandra has been networking to find a way out of the impasse the ICL finds itself in, thanks to the BCCI's hardline stance.
The first sign of change came when BCCI boss Sharad Pawar, a day ahead of the governing body's meeting to discuss the ICL and come up with an official stance, suggested that players taking part in the league would not necessarily be banned. A couple of days later, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh asked Pawar to try and avoid a head on collision with the ICL.
And now, the move by Lalu Yadav, all dove-tailing neatly into the growing perception that there is much frantic back channel activity aimed at ending the impasse and getting the league off the ground.
Another theory doing the rounds is that Lalu Yadav had some aspirations to succeed Pawar as BCCI chief, and found himself stymied by the board's decision to pick a president-elect, and promptly naming Shashank Manohar to that role, thus making him the heir apparent and cutting the ground out from under the feet of all other aspirants. This, whispers suggest, is Lalu's way of getting back at the board.
Amusingly, board vice president Rajiv Shukla has this to say:
The BCCI distanced itself from Lalu. Vice-president Rajiv Shukla told DNA: "Lalu Prasad is entitled to his views. We've nothing to do with him. We don't have to react."
Ahem! Rajiv, the guy happens to head one of the state associations, so like it or not, you do have something to do with him, and you just might have to formulate some reaction that is more practical than ostrich, head, sand.
Right, enough of gloom and doom.
India in the United Kingdom 2007
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