Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reckons reviving Test cricket‘s popularity is the next challenge ahead of the administrators, while Sachin Tendulkar believes the first step in that direction could be throwing open the gates for school and college students.

“One of the suggestions I gave to the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) was to make Test cricket day/night affair to allow people to come and watch it after their duty hours,” said Modi, hailed for making Twenty20 in general and IPL in particular a massive success, during a panel discussion on Tuesday.

The discussion followed the release “Out of the Box – Watching the Game We Love”, a book by commentator Harsha Bhogle whose first copy was presented to Tendulkar.

Taking part in the discussion, albeit as part of the packed audience, Tendulkar once again repeated his idea to the Cricket Board that it should allow free entry to the students to convert them into fans of the traditional form of the game.

“I have already suggested this to the BCCI. Going to watch the India vs West Indies Test match in 1983 at the Wankhede Stadium as a seven-year-old is etched in my memory. The BCCI should open the gates on weekends to top school and college children to savour Test cricket live. If at least 10 per cent of them become Test fans, the purpose would be served,” he said.

Tendulkar’s former India team-mate and now a television expert, Sanjay Manjrekar, felt that the problem with Test cricket is that though the fans loved seeing three bouncers directed at a batsman by a bowler or catches taken in the slips, it was too spread-out.

“This action is spread out over seven hours which is too long. When you tweak that, Test cricket can be enjoyable,” said Manjrekar.

Modi said with so many other forms of entertainment readily available to the consumers these days, they need to be attracted to the game.

“There are other sports for the consumer to turn to. There are 100 or 150 TV channels too. One way forward is to play day-night Tests. Also we need to schedule more Tests into the FTP which can be done for the 2012-2020 programme,” he suggested.

Manjrekar, supporting Australian great Shane Warne who has said 50-over cricket has lost its shelf life, said there was too much mediocrity in the more traditional limited-overs format.

“What I want is excellence but I feel there’s too much mediocrity in 50-over games. Take for example the recent series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where 80 per cent of the runs were scored through ones and two’s and not through boundary hits,” he pointed out.

Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond will not play this year’s Champions League Twenty20 tournament. 

Arguably the standout performer of Canterbury’s march to the State Twenty20 final against Otago, Bond’s contract with the Delhi Giants means he will not be permitted to play in the Champions event, should Canterbury win and then the winner of Sunday’s match be invited.

Unlike Chris Harris, whose differing contract with the Hyderabad Heroes meant he was not eligible to play for Canterbury at all during the State Twenty20, Bond has been.

But donning the red-and-black colours over in India would be a bridge too far for Champions League organisers Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Talks between the BCCI, International Cricket Council and ICL, about the ICL and its players coming in from the cold, broke down in Johannesburg on Monday.

Canterbury Cricket chief executive Lee Germon said it would take a significant thaw in those relations, or the demise of the ICL, to reverse the ruling on Bond.

“If he is no longer part of the ICL, then perhaps things could change. But, at this stage, Bondy can’t play,” Germon said.

India’s rebel Twenty20 league is considering legal action after failing in the latest bid for recognition because of staunch opposition by the Indian board, former India skipper Kapil Dev said on Wednesday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) was unsuccessful in its bid to end a dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Cricket League (ICL) after a meeting held in Johannesburg on Monday proved fruitless.

“As a sportsman, I don’t like matters of sport being decided in court, but with the talks failing (again), we may have no choice but to take recourse to law,” Kapil Dev, chairman of the Indian Cricket League (ICL), said.

“I can’t understand who has given the BCCI the right to be the sole authority for promoting cricket in India. The ICL too is doing just that, so why should our boys be punished? That, to me, is not justice.”

The ICL’s application to be recognised as unofficial cricket would now be discussed at the ICC Board meeting in April.

The ICL, bankrolled by one of India’s largest media firms, launched the league following India’s triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007.

It signed overseas players, particularly from Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh.

However the BCCI, concerned the league would undermine its position, refused to recognise it and persuaded other national boards to ban players who signed up.

The International Cricket Council’s bid to end a dispute between the Indian board and the nation’s rebel Twenty20 league ended in failure on Monday.

The Indian Cricket League’s (ICL) application to be recognised as unofficial cricket will now go before the ICC Board which meets in Dubai in April, the ruling body said in a statement.

ICC president David Morgan was disappointed three-hour talks in Johannesburg proved fruitless.

“I’m grateful to all parties for coming together with the best of intentions and the discussions took place in a friendly and cordial manner but, unfortunately, we were not able to come to a successful conclusion,” he said.

The ICL, bankrolled by the Essel group, one of India’s largest media firms, launched the league following India’s triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007.

It signed overseas players, particularly from Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh.

However the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), concerned the league would undermine its position, refused to recognise it and persuaded other national boards to ban players who signed up.

The ICC will meet representatives of the BCCI and the rebel ICL in Johannesburg on February 23.

This follows the ICC Executive Board’s decision early this month authorising the official cricket boards of each country to decide on which events/tournaments within its territory are approved/unapproved.

Around 150 players plying their trade in the ICL have been banned by their respective boards and the ICC is keen that the matter gets sorted out in the February 23 meeting.

“I’ve long regarded it as a priority to bring together the BCCI and the owners of the ICL and I’m pleased to say we have fixed a meeting to take place in Johannesburg on Monday,” Morgan said.

“I hope we might be successful in coming to a mutually acceptable conclusion. I can’t be certain that will be the case but I hope we can at least make a start in bringing about a settlement,” he said.

“I think this is significant because experience tells me that the best opportunity to solve a dispute is to have the parties face-to-face.”

Pakistan has recently allowed its players aligned with ICL to play in domestic circuit following a ruling by Sindh High Court but still retained the ban on playing international cricket.

Representatives of the ICC, the Indian Cricket League and the BCCI will meet in Johannesburg next week to thrash out a settlement on the ‘rebel’ league’s application for official recognition.

This follows the ICC Executive Board’s decision early this month authorising the official cricket boards of each country to decide on which events/tournaments within its territory are approved/unapproved.

Around 150 players plying their trade in the ICL have been banned by their respective boards and the ICC is keen that the matter gets sorted out in the February 21 meeting.

Pakistan has recently allowed its players aligned with ICL to play in domestic circuit following a ruling by Sindh High Court but still retained the ban on playing international cricket.

ICL chairman Subhas Chandra will be in Johannesburg for the meeting.

Chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the world body was optimistic of finding a solution soon.

“We are advanced in possible discussions that could hopefully determine settlement,” Lorgat said.

“I think we must always be optimistic that we can work out something but there are still some miles to cross.”

Indian Cricket League has postponed its Twenty20 tournament scheduled next month as it clashed with India’s tour of New Zealand, ICL board member Dean Jones said.

Jones said the global financial crisis and the fact that Indian cricket team’s tour of New Zealand would have clashed with the ICL were key reasons for the decision.

He said the tournament would be played later in the year. “The financial crisis played a part but mainly we didn’t want to clash with India’s New Zealand tour,” Jones said.

“The tournament will be played later in the year –absolutely. I am very confident,” Jones was quoted as saying by ‘The Daily Telegraph’.

The newspaper claimed that former Australia players Michael Kasprowicz, Jimmy Maher, Ian Harvey, Stuart Law, Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn were told by e-mail this week the ICL’s March tournament would not take place.

The players have been told that their six-figure contract fees are, however, not under threat, it said.

Pakistan cricket authorities on Wednesday said they would respect a court decision to suspend ban on players who featured in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL), paving their return to domestic matches.

The move came a week after Sindh high court suspended the ban saying it was unjust.

Nineteen Pakistani players featured in the ICL, bankrolled by India’s largest media group, Zee Television, but not recognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or the International Cricket Council (ICC).

In 2007, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) barred the players, who included former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and star batsman Mohammad Yousuf, from playing at all levels in the country.

“All the eleven players who contested the ban are now allowed to play in the domestic matches. The procedure adopted to ban the players was wrong,” PCB legal adviser Shan Gul said outside the court after a further hearing was adjourned.

“We bow before the court’s decision and there is no bar on these eleven players from playing in domestic matches. If other ICL players contest the case they will also be allowed to play.”

Mohammad Yousuf was among the 11 players who can now return to domestic cricket after lining up for the Lahore Badshahs in the ICL. The side was a major attraction, winning the Twenty20 league last year.

Gul said the PCB will fight the court’s ruling only when it came to Yousuf because “he took ten million rupees ($125,000) from the Board for not playing in the ICL, and shamelessly went there to play.

“However, Yousuf is still allowed to play first class cricket,” said Gul.

Gul moved to dispel the impression that the PCB imposed the ban on ICL players.

“ICC is the governing body and their rulings are binding on all member boards. ICC Executive Board gave the rulings on the ICL-related matters and according to that, the boards banned the players,” said Gul.

Indian Cricket League is set to recruit two more English umpires despite the ECB’s efforts not to lose match officials to ICL. 

“We approached English first-class umpires because we were keen to maintain international standards,” Himanshu Mody, the business head of the ICL, said.

“We are still looking at England as a recruiting ground for umpires. In fact, we are in the process of bringing in two more English umpires to officiate in ICL,” Mody said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is in the process of tying local umpires with 12-month contract to prevent an exodus, an attitude that drew flak from former pacer and ICL umpire Allan Jones.

“The current policy and attitude towards the ICL is wrong. They (ECB) don’t want ICL because it clashes with the IPL. The ECB are worried about security and betting. We had a small incident but the security is actually very good.

“Crowd is fantastic and the TV referrals system works brilliantly. It’s the most fun I’ve had standing up,” said Jones, who chose an early retirement from the ECB and signed an ICL contract until 2010.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men can grab the number two spot in the ICC ODI Championship table provided they complete a 5-0 whitewash in Sri Lanka and Australia’s misery continues against New Zealand.

Having already pocketed the series by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, India is already within two ratings points of Australia and four behind leaders South Africa (125).

A 5-0 whitewash of Mahela Jayawardene’s team may help the Indians topple Australia from the number two spot, provided Ricky Ponting’s men, who lost their firsrt ODI against New Zealand, continue their poor shows.

With Dhoni’s men touring New Zealand in March where they will play five One-dayers, a lot can change before the April 1 cut off date.

The top side in the ODI Championship will be richer by $175,000 with the runners-up getting $75,000, the ICC said in a press release.

Current rankings: 1. South Africa (125 points); 2. Australia (123); 3. India (121); 4. New Zealand (115); 5. Pakistan (111); 6. England (108); 7. Sri Lanka (104); 8 West Indies (91); 9. Bangladesh (46); 10. Zimbabwe (23); 11. Ireland (19); 12. Kenya (0).