BCCI plans talks with unofficial league

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will hold talks with the country's unofficial league (ICL), whose players are now banned from all official cricket.

The BCCI took the decision after International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan last week met officials of the Indian Cricket League, which is seeking approval from the ruling body.

The unofficial league is vehemently opposed by the BCCI, whose president Shashank Manohar will submit a detailed report to the ICC after his meeting with ICL officials, an ICC news release said on Tuesday.

Launched in 2007, the ICL has signed up many internationals, including New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, and is proving to be drain on the talent of smaller nations.

It stunned the Bangladesh Cricket Board last month when 13 players, led by former skipper Habibul Bashar, joined the ICL, which is bankrolled by the nation's biggest listed broadcasters.

An ICC sub-committee, also including Manohar and the head of the official Indian Twenty20 league, is due to submit a final draft on new regulations on official and unofficial cricket.

The ICC, which began a two-day meeting in Dubai on Tuesday, also said it had decided to extend the trial of its umpire decision review system, introduced during India's test series in Sri Lanka from July to August.

The system will be tried out in another 12 tests during the New Zealand-West Indies, India-Pakistan, West Indies-England and South Africa-Australia series, running from December to March.

The trials will help make the system more familiar to referees, umpires and players before the ICC's cricket committee discusses whether it should be implemented, the release added.