ICL is `Netajis baby, not Goels !

It sound bizarre, but the recently created Indian Cricket League (ICL) is the brainchild of Subash Chandra Bose, a media mogul whose two billion dollar Essel Group includes Indias biggest television network.

London, Nov.29 : It sound bizarre, but the recently created Indian Cricket League (ICL) is the brainchild of Subash Chandra Bose, a media mogul whose two billion dollar Essel Group includes India's biggest television network.

At least, that's what today's report in The Guardian would have you believe.

The paper further goes on to state that Bose, a well-known Indian freedom fighter, president of India's Congress Party in the late 1920s, and Commander-in-Chief of the Indian National Army (INA) in the 1930s and 1940s, gambled early on "that Twenty-20's three-hour slugfests would appeal to fans mad on cricket but, be short on time."

"Dismissed initially by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Bose's odds of succeeding shortened when India won the Twenty20 World Cup, with broadcasters charging up to 5,000 pounds for a 10-second advertising slot during the Indian team's games. The BCCI then did an abrupt aboutturn and announced its own Twenty20 league would begin next April. Bose's ICL, a two-week battle between six sides, comes first," says the Guardian report.

It's another matter, that the ICL is the brainchild of Subhash Chandra Goel and not Subhas Chandra Bose.

ANI