Cricket is followed not as a sport but more like a religion in India. With a great fan following, this sport is also the place where the country’s team is very close to becoming the international champion which involves more passion of the people. ICL cricket league is a venture of the ESSEL group which aims to bring the passion within cricketers out on the surface. The main aim of this venture is to bring out the ideal cricketers who have a killer instinct for the game and are able to perform even under immense pressure.

Chandigarh Lions

Chandigarh Lions are lead by Chris Cairns of New Zealand. Other star performers of this team include Andrew Hall, Daryl Tuffey, Imran Farhat, and Hamish Marshall. These players with years of experience behind them will bring good record for the team in the coming days. On the recently concluded ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08, Chandigarh Lions showed their mettle by becoming the runner-up team.

Other members of Chandigarh Lions also showed their capability in the tournament. While the captain of the team showed the way how the team should be playing, other domestic players also played a larger role in getting the team to the final. The coach of Chandigarh Lions is Mr. Balwinder Sandhu an ex-test cricketer from India. Notable players from India in the team include Dinesh Mongia, Chetan Sharma, Gaurav Gupta, Sarabjeet Singh, and Reetinder Singh Sodhi.

The Team
Coach: Chris Cairns
Captain: Chris Cairns
Squad: Matthew Elliott, Lou Vincent, Andrew Hall, Daryl Tuffey, Tejinder Pal Singh, Manish Sharma, Chetan Sharma Jr, Dinesh Mongia, Amit Uniyal, Rajesh Sharma, Love Ablish, Bipul Sharma, Karanveer Singh, Gaurav Gupta, Harpreet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Sarabjit Singh.

Royal Bengal Tigers

Royal Bengal Tigers led by former New Zealand player Craig McMillan could not make a mark in the recently concluded ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08. However, in the coming days Royal Bengal Tigers will certainly come up with vengeance as they lost to the ultimate champions Chennai Superstars in the 1st semi-finals of the championship. With professional like Craig McMillan, Lance Klusener, Darren Maddy, Boyd Rankin, Nantie Hayward and Upul Chandana, in the forthcoming tournaments this team will certainly come up as a better side than now.

Team Royal Bengal Tigers is coached by Daryll Cullinan former South Africa player. With years of experience behind him he will certainly take the team to a greater height by improving fielding, batting and bowling of the team. Star performers in this team include the likes of Rohan Gavaskar, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Deep Dasgupta, and Mihir Diwakar. Though Royal Bengal Tigers did not perform up to their potential in the recently held ICL 20-20 Championship, it will certainly stand up to its name in the coming days.

The Team
Coach: Daryl Cullinan
Captain: Craig Douglas McMillan
Squad: Lance Klusener, Upul Chandana, Andre Adams, Hamish Marshall, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Deep Dasgupta, Rohan Gavaskar, Subhomoy Das, Rajiv Kumar,Pritam Das,Shiv Sagar Singh,Mihir Diwakar,Sujay Tarafdar,Ali Hamid,Eklak Ahmid.

Chennai Superstars

With ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08 under their belt, Chennai Superstars have proved their mettle against the likes of teams headed by Brian Lara, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Maravan Atapattu. Stewart Law from Australia led the charge against all other teams to clinch the coveted title. In the effort, Chennai Superstars had the alluring performances from other players such as Russell Arnold, Ian Harvey, and Shabbir Ahmed too.

The nitty-gritty of the game plan was devised by Chennai Superstars’ coach Micheal Bevan. The Australian magic between the coach and the captain clicked for this team in lifting the championship. Indian players like Hemang Badani, Sridharan Sriram also made their presence felt in the team. With a cap on their head, Chennai Superstars will be a team to reckon with in the next ICL championship. Hopefully they will perform like this championship in the immediate future.

The Team
Coach: Michael Bevan
Captain: Stuart Law
Squad: Ian Harvey, Russel Arnold, Shabbir Ahmed, Rajagopal Sathish, Hemang Badani, Vasanth Saravanan, Tamil Kumaran, Ganapathi Vignesh, Rajamani Jesuraj, Jaikumar Hariesh, Vivek Naidu, Nantie Hayward, Hemanth Kumar, Syed Mohammad, Thiru Kumaran, Vasudevan Devendran.

Mumbai Champs

The star studded team of Mumbai Champs did not deliver what was needed of them during the recently concluded ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08. However, this team will certainly try to battle it out in the forthcoming matches. It is led by ‘Prince of Trinidad’ Brian Lara. Mumbai Champs’ performance was mediocre during the tournament. May be next season they will come up with a performance better than any other team.

Mumbai Champs includes international cricket stars like Mervin Dillon, Vikram Solanki, Nathan Astle, and JJ Van der Wath in the team. The role of coach is given to Sandeep Patil, erstwhile cricketer from India. Other players in Mumbai Champs team include players like Subhojit Paul, Avinash Yadav, Kiran Powar, Pushkaraj Joshi, Ranjeet Kirid. Though this team failed to perform when required, next time they hopefully will try to prove a point.

The Team
Coach: Sandeep Patil
Captain: Nathan Astle
Squad: Taufeeq Umar, Johan van der Wath, Michael Kasprowicz, Hasan Raza,Kiran Powar, Subhojit Paul, Robin Morris, Shreyas Khanolkar, Avinash Yadav, Dheeraj Jadhav, Pushkaraj Joshi, Nikhil Mandale, Raviraj Patil, Shridhar Iyer, Suyash Burkul, Anupam Sanklecha, Ranjit Khirid

Delhi Giants

The Delhi Giants spearheaded by Maravan Atapattu from Sri Lanka convincingly defeated the Kolkata tigers in the 3rd place playoff. They are bitter after the nail biting defeat by the Chandigarh Lions in the 1st semi final of the ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08. Though Delhi Giants got a shaky start, they won over the remaining teams to give challenge to the finalist. Though it was quite clear that Maravan Atapattu would be the captain of the team, he joined the camp only in the final hours.

That might have been the reason for the shaky start but in future Delhi Giants will prove to be a force to reckon with. Apart from the captain other notable players of this team are Dale Benkenstein (SA), Taufeeq Umar (Pak), Neil O’Brien (Ire) and Paul Nixon. Noted cricket player and former team India coach Mr. Madan Lal coached Delhi Giants team. It also included other Indian players such as JP Yadav and Ali Murtaza.

The Team
Coach : Madanlal Sharma
Captain : Maravan Samson Atapattu
Squad: Avishka Gunawardene, Dale Benkenstein, Shane Bond, Abbas Ali, Jai Prakash Yadav, Taduri Sudhindra, Ali Murtaza, Abhinav Bali, Dhruv Mahajan, Dishant Yagnik, Abid Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Shalabh Srivastava, Raghav Sachdev, Paul Nixon, Monish Mishra.

Ahmedabad Rockets

The newly formed Ahmedabad Rockets with Damien Martyn as its captain is all set to compete against the other ICL teams in the tournament to be held from March 9, 2008 . Ahmedabad Rockets is one amongst the 2 teams that have been added to the initial 6 teams of ICL, reflecting a anxious attempt to rival the IPL (that is promoted by BCCI). Ahmedabad Rockets with its list of members would a much awaited spectacle to view in the upcoming ICL matches.

Other team members of Ahmedabad Rockets are inclusive of Murray Goodwin (Zimbabwe), Heath Streak (Zimbabwe), Jason Gillespie (Australia), Wavell Hinds (West Indies), Abhishek Tamrakar (India), Anshu Jain (India), P. Bhima Rao (India), Parviz Aziz (India), Pallav Vora (India), Reetinder Sodhi (India), Rakesh Patel (India), Sachin Dholpure (India), Sanjeev Martin (India), Baburao Yadav (India), Sriram Sridharan (India), and Sumit Kalia (India). Its support staff members comprise of John Emburey (coach/England), Angela Cadogan (physiotherapist), Andrew Gray (strength and conditioning coach), and Carl Jacobs (massage therapist).

Ahmedabad Rockets can be viewed competing with other ICL teams with its live telecast on Ten Sports and Zee Sports. The matches played by the teams that are participating in the ICL tournament would be based upon the Twenty20 cricket format.

To keep a track of the latest news about Ahmedabad Rockets, log on to Indian Cricket Leagues on a regular basis.

The Team
Coach: John Emburey
Captain: Damien Richard Martyn
Squad: Jason Gillespie, Ryan Campbell, Heath Streak, Murray Goodwin, Sridharan Sriram, Anshu Jain, Sachin Dholpure, Sumit Kalia, Reetinder Sodhi, Rakesh Patel, Pallav Vora, Bhima Rao, Baburao Yadav, Kunal Lal, Abhishek Tamrakar, Parvez Aziz, Martin Sanjeev.

Hyderabad Heroes

Former captain of Pakistan national side Inzamam-ul-Haq led Hyderabad Heroes in the recently held ICL 20-20 Indian Championship 2007-08. The captain has on his cap a number of records. During the tournament he led from the front however, due to lack of luck or support from the team mates, Hyderabad Heroes could not match up to their potential. The year 2007-2008 for Hyderabad Heroes was not a great year however this coming year could be the year when this team will perform up to its name.

Other well-known players of this team include Abdul Razzak (Pak), Azhar Mahmood (Pak), Chris Harris (NZ), Nicky Boje (SA). Moin Khan former cricketer from Pakistan coaches Hyderabad Heroes team. He is known as a strategist who carefully plans any match and comes up with radical ideas to give a team the momentum at the right time. This team also has other known players from national circuit like Alfred Absolom, Bheema Rao, Baburao Yadav, Stuart Binny, Syed Shahbuddin etc.

The Team
Coach: Steve Rixon
Captain: Chris Zinzan Harris
Squad: James Maher, Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Abdul Razzaq, Anirudh Singh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Ambati Rayudu, Kaushik Reddy, Stuart Binny, Shashank Nag, Pagadala Niranjan, Zakaria Zuffri, Vinay Kumar, Alfred Absolem, Inder Shekar Reddy, Syed Sahabuddin

Lahore Badshahs 

With the setting up of ICL (Indian Cricket League) on March 3, 2008 the cricket scenario has set for a new trend. The intention with which this league was formulated was to promote young cricket talents to achieve skills of international level. It began with 6 teams which has now grown into 8 teams with the additions of 2 new teams namely the Lahore Badshahs and the Ahmedabad Rockets.

Lahore Badshahs with Inzamam ul Haq as its captain is one of the new teams that have joined the ICL (Indian Cricket League), an endeavourer by the Essel Group. Taufeeq Umer ( Pakistan ), Azhar Mahmood ( Pakistan ), Imran Farhat ( Pakistan ), Saqlain Mushtaq ( Pakistan ), Rana Naveedul Hasan ( Pakistan ), Shahid Nazir ( Pakistan ), Mushtaq Ahmed ( Pakistan ), Hasan Reza ( Pakistan ), Naveed Latif ( Pakistan ), Hummayun Farhat ( Pakistan ), Mohammed Sami ( Pakistan ), Arshad Khan ( Pakistan ), and Riaz Afridi ( Pakistan ), Imran Nazir ( Pakistan ), are amidst the other team members of this newly formed team. Moin Khan ( Pakistan ), Jason Wheadon (strength and conditioning coach), Steven Partidge (physiotherapist), Abdul Rauf (massage therapist) comprise its support staff.

We are accessible all round the clock so you can access information on Lahore Badshahs at any given time of the day through us. To keep yourself updated about the news that surrounds Lahore Badshahs and other ICL teams, stay tuned in to our website!

The Team
Coach: Moin Khan
Captain: Inzamam-ul-Haq
Squad: Imran Farhat, Shahid Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Naved Latif, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shahid Nazir, Arshad Khan, Riaz Afridi, Tahir Mughal, Hafiz Khalid, Mohammad Sami

Dhaka Warriors

Dhaka Warriors is the ninth team that is going to be a part of the much talked about Indian Cricket League for its forthcoming season on October 10. This team comprising of 13 players from different levels would be led by the former Bangladeshi captain, Habibul Bashar. The six among these players have to face harsh treatment through Bangladesh Cricket Board, who insisted them to keep their players to the domestic fold only. It comprises of the recent internationals Aftab Ahmed, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Dhiman Ghosh, and Mosharraf Hossain. They would play under Coach Balwinder Sandhu, the former Indian player, including quarto players who represented Bangladesh in the past.

Many of the Bangladeshi cricketers are furious at this move and expressed their wrath out rightly. The first season begins with the ICL 20s Championship that is going to be staged across four venues Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Panchkula and Gurgaon. It will be followed by the World Series. It would feature teams representing Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and rest of the world going to be held in Hyderabad.

In addition to this, ICL is planning to scatter the game at the grassroots level. Dhaka Warriors are sure to add lots more thrill and excitement to this amazing series. You can find all the latest updates of this match on ICL. It is a constructive way to enhance its area of influence by introducing the Dhaka Warriors.

The Team
Coach: Balwinder Singh Sandhu
Captain: Habib-Ul-Bashar
Squad: Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees, Alok Kapali, Dhiman Ghosh (wk), Farhad Reza, Manjural Islam, Golam Mabud (wk), Mahbubul Karim, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Sharif, Mosharraf Hossain, Tapash Baisya.