The ICL seems to have gone into the background with all this IPL hype, but make no mistake, the ICL is definitely making progress on all fronts.

The ICL kicks off the 2008 season with the ‘Edelweiss 20s Challenge’ Twenty20 tournament today with the Chandigarh Lions vs the Ahmedabad Rockets today. I was not really paying any attention to the ICL all this time, but when I checked their site yesterday, I was in for quite a shock.

In many ways, the ICL is what the IPL is not. Just look at their website, http://indiancricketleague.in/ It is very well designed, not cluttered at all, and very regularly updated. It has team profiles, news, stats and all kinds of stuff. Very cool compared to the hopelessly outdated IPL official website.

Did you know that the ICL has also signed up 2 new teams? First is the Ahmedabad Rockets, lead by Damein Martin. The second, very interestingly, is the Lahore Badshah’s a team from Pakistan!

This is a brilliant move in my opinion. Pakistan’s domestic cricket scene is in tatters, and the cricket hungry nation doesn’t have much to look to. Having a Pakistani City as the team is a brilliant ploy.

The ICL has also added 2 more venues, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, so as to draw more spectators. They’ve also signed on a whole bunch of international players, with Adam Parore, Damien Martyn and Kasprowicz just to name a few. They’ve even upped their prize money to Rs 12.33 Crores for this tournament!

These developments are very interesting indeed, and the ICL has reckoned that it is also a serious contender to this struggle for viewers and fans. Let the battle begin!