DUBAI, Oct 14: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday agreed to meet officials of the rebel Indian Cricket League, the money-spinning Twenty20 tournament which has caused a deep rift in the game.

The decision was announced at the end of the first day of the International Cricket Council’s two-day board meeting here.

ICC president David Morgan recently met with ICL officials in London, during which he was handed an application for official approval of the tournament.

At the board meeting on Tuesday, it was resolved that BCCI president Shashank Manohar will meet the representatives of the ICL, following which he will provide the ICC board with a report of those discussions.

The board is then expected to take a decision on officially sanctioning the ICL which is currently into its second year and is a rival to the officially-sanctioned Indian Premier League (IPL).

The ICL, started by Indian media magnate Subhash Chandra, owner of Zee Television Limited, runs parallel to the commercially successful Indian Premier League, which is owned by the BCCI.

The ICL has not been sanctioned by the ICC, and most players participating in the tournament have been handed lengthy bans from international cricket by their respective boards, barring the exception of England.

Welcoming the decision, former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev, a board member of ICL, said: “This is a positive step. I think if you want to sort out any issues, you’ve got to have a dialogue.

“You really can’t assume things without talking to the other party. If the ICC wants to talk to resolve the problem — and I really don’t see any problem because all we are doing is promote the sport — then a dialogue is most welcome.”

The ICC Board also set up a five-member sub-committee - which includes two BCCI officials apart from ICC legal chief David Becker - to form new regulations governing official and unofficial cricket.

In another decision reached on the first day of the two-day meeting, the ICC board reviewed the report on the umpire decision referral system, which was trialled during the recent Sri Lanka-India Test series.

They agreed to extend the trial to the four upcoming series, including the three-Test India-Pakistan series, the four-Test West Indies-England series and the three-Test South Africa-Australia series early next year.

The board also decided to shift the venue of the ICC World Cup Qualifier from the United Arab Emirates to South Africa after the Emirates Cricket Board expressed their inability to stage the event in April 2009 due to all venues not being ready in time.—AFP