With hardly 72 hours left for the beginning of ICL Season 2, all eyes are set on the fireworks that the $500 million marketing budget of the ICL Indian Championship 2008 will bring. The fixtures have been released. The colours decided. All that separates us from over a month of pulsating cricketing action is the gala opening ceremony on the 10th of October, 2008 at Hyderabad. Season 2 of ICL 20s Indian Championship will see 41 matches being played across 4 specially-prepared stadiums at Hyderabad, Panchkula, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad. The season leads up to a final on the 16th November, with the added attraction being the introduction of the 9th team - Dhaka Warriors. 

The teams who are expected to lead the charge are defending champions of the ICL Indian Championship - Hyderabad Heroes. What sets ICL apart from the pure money-injected spectacle of IPL, is a strong undercurrent of something that is much larger than the game itself. Sport sometimes can be competitive - nastily so. But this where Lieutenant Colonel Kapil Dev manages to bind three nations and the commonality that exists in the sport. Enter the Lahore Badshahs and this time, we have the perfect making of a blockbuster. Apart from this, exciting cricketing action is guaranteed by the Mumbai Champs, the Chennai Superstars, the Chandigarh Lions, the Kolkata Tigers, the Delhi Giants and the new team from Gujarat - Ahmedabad Rockets.

ICL promises to make Season 2 an unparalleled experience for cricket lovers across the globe and this is an exciting platform for the young guns to grab some deserving attention for themselves. Kiran More, executive board member, ICL, stated, “With the inclusion of the Dhaka Warriors, our ICL domestic talent will be exposed to another international side. The new team will play an instrumental role in giving the domestic talent top-of-the-drawer competition. The introduction of Lahore Badshahs during our last season set new standards for league cricket and I am confident that the Dhaka Warriors will propel those set standards further.”

ICL senior VP Operations, Shariq Patel admits that they have spent close to $300 million over the last year to create the cricketing infrastructure across the 4 venues that have been selected for the tournament. Since ICL is owned by Zee Telefilms (part of the Essel Group, which is promoted by Subhash Chandra), Season 2 of the Indian Championship will be telecast live worldwide on Zee Sports, along with Ten Sports. The following season of cricket will mark an interesting turn to the long-standing contest between BCCI’s baby - the Indial Premier League and the runaway apple-cart upsetter, the Indian Cricket League. All said and done - if ICL manages to hit the right notes at  the 20s Indian Championship 2008, there might be no stopping them from slowly garnering a significant portion of the cricketing mindscape of the nation. After all, no matter what happens - may the sport win!

Technorati Tags: ICL Indian Championship 2008, ICL Season 2

Posted on October 7th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: ICL Season 2