September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

DHAKA, Sept 17: Bangladesh cricket chiefs said on Wednesday that 13 players who opted to compete in the unauthorised Indian Twenty20 league will be banned for 10 years.

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) unveiled late Tuesday its new Dhaka Warriors team in New Delhi, which comprises 11 Bangladesh internationals reportedly earning $200,000 each over a three-year period.The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) held an emergency meeting on Wednesday and decided to ban the players for joining the unapproved league for 10 years, BCB spokesman Rabeed Imam said.

“We don’t have full reports of who have joined the ICL. But today, the board has decided that whoever has joined the unapproved league would be automatically banned for 10 years,” he said.

The board was also considering legal action against the 13 for breaching International Cricket Council rules, he added.

At least seven of the 13 players informed the BCB they were retiring from Bangladesh cricket, citing personal reasons.

The 13 players announced for the Dhaka Warriors include former captain Habibul Bashar and senior team-mates Shahriar Nafis, Dhiman Ghosh, Mohammad Rafique and Alok Kapali.

The others are Aftab Ahmed, Farhad Reza, Manjural Islam, Mabud Chowdhury, Mahbubul Karim, Mohammad Sharif, Mosharraf Hossain and Tapash Baisya.

Players aligned with the ICL are banned from playing official domestic and international cricket.

The meeting was held a day after the board announced it would not accept the players’ retirements.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bangladesh’s Australia-born coach Jamie Siddons, who joined the cricket minnows a year ago, denied the sport was in crisis.

“We can’t afford to lose that many players on a regular basis. We’ll replace these guys with young players but my biggest concern is that the ICL will come knocking again next year,” Siddons said via telephone from Australia.

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful told the leading Bengali language newspaper Prothom Alo in an interview published on Tuesday that he was offered a $700,000 contract to play in the ICL, which he declined.

—AFP