ICL announces prize money of Rs 3.24 Crs

{image-indian cricket league_09042008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Apr 9: The Indian Cricket League (ICL) announced the prize money corpus of Rs 3.24 crores for its 'ICL 20s World Series 2008' that begins from today in Hyderabad.

The winners of the tournament will get richer by Rs 1.25 crore while runners-up stand to gain Rs 75 lakh and the third placed team will get Rs 50 lakh. The competition will have seven matches and will feature three teams - ICL India, ICL Pakistan and ICL World. Every win at the league stage will account for a handsome Rs 10 lakh, resulting in total prize money of Rs 60 lakh at the league stage only whereas incentive for individual performance will be an impressive Rs 2 lakh for Man of the Match.

''The level of cricket at ICL is on an ascendancy mode. At the recently concluded Edelweiss 20s Challenge, we saw our boys come out with stand-out performances, which shaped the results of some high standard cricket matches,'' Indian Cricket League's (ICL) Executive Board Chairman Kapil Dev said yesterday.

''With ICL 20s World Series 2008, our promising domestic boys will face the toughest challenge of proving their cricketing credentials against two of the mightiest teams in the world,'' he added.

Inzaman-ul-Haq will lead the formidable ICL Pakistan team while Chris Cairns will lead a galaxy of international stalwarts representing ICL World and R Sathish will lead the ICL India.

Moin Khan will coach the Pakistan side, England off-spinner John Emburey will coach the World team and former Australian wicket keeper Steve Rixon will be Indian Team's coach.

UNI