New Delhi/ Mumbai: They are sworn enemies of Indian cricket. The Indian Cricket League (ICL) has been branded as a rebel league, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) promoted Indian Premier League (IPL) is currently the hottest property in world cricket.
But beyond the shrill rhetoric can there be a common meeting ground? CNN-IBN wonders about that possibility.
Even while playing a round of recreational golf, Dean Jones never gave an opponent an inch.
So as a member of the ICL Executive Board, he has the same approach towards the other T20 league that's about to kick off.
"Bring it on. If the IPL think they are good enough and they have got the best Twenty20 crop in the world, we do. Bring it on," Jones says.
And there is a idea some are dreaming up.
Why don't the leagues stop taking each other on in the media or in legal battles, and instead, how about a three-match series between the champions of the ICL versus the champions of the IPL?
"We are running our game, they are running their game. We see no competition. It's just another tournament," says Lalit Modi, Chairman of the IPL.
IPL bosses may laugh it off, but with the so-called rebels having already organised two successful tournaments they can say what you are about to hear next.
"ICL is already existing, so let IPL play a couple of tournaments. Once they get established, the time will come when people will start saying, 'let's have a match between the two teams,'" says the ICL Chairman Kapil Dev.
It may be the ultimate cricketing fantasy and may not come true anytime soon. But stranger things have happened in this game before.
(With inputs from Roma Khanna in Mumbai)
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