The Twenty20 league being planned by the BCCI is going to put some current Indian players in a fix. None more so than the big three - SRT, Ganguly and Dravid.

It would be interesting to note whether the three stalwarts of Indian cricket - who withdrew from the 20-20 World Cup squad, ostentatiously to give the youngsters a chance - would be part of this new jamboree.

It is hard to see how the BCCI wouldn't use its biggest weapons - the stars - to give the ICL a fat lip. The ICL's 20-20 matches with its Rohan Gavaskars and Dinesh Mongias, and the BCCI's 20-20 with the Tendulkars and Gangulys. What the crowds are going to throng for is a definite no-brainer!

However, this would make a mockery of the three biggies who have been quoted as being willing absentees from the squad, with quotes like: "It is a young man's game" and "It is harder to recover when you are 34" (not to be confused with the 'Tendulkar planning to retire' angle the media gave to this story). Now, it is going to be mighty hard to suddenly turn around and fit the Twenty20 matches into their already packed calendars.

For the BCCI, tiredness and recovery of the players would be furthest from their minds as they play the game of one-upmanship with the ICL. Frankly, any domestic league without the Tendulkars and Gangulys will be only slightly more glitzy than the ICL's own league, especially if the ICL manages to sign up some big foreign names as is being hinted. Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa are upcoming stars, but today, they cannot match the stature of a Dravid, Tendulkar or Ganguly. They could never pull the crowds the way the three stars can.

On the other hand, players like V.V.S. Laxman would find this new format a life-saver in terms of being involved with other forms of the game than Test cricket. Again, for the BCCI, star value would be important, and V.V.S. definitely would bring star value to the league, and with (probably) there being no limits on the number of players who would be drafted in to play in the league, guys like V.V.S. would definitely fancy their chances.

Somehow, it looks like the ICL is going to achieve one of its main objectives: that of giving chances to more players to showcase their talents. Only, it might not be in the ICL's own league but the BCCI's. But that is just a technicality. Heh heh!