The plans of several county sides have been thrown into chaos after the realisation that their overseas players are unlikely to gain clearance to play.
The news comes after cricket boards around the world tightened their stances against the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League. To make matters worse for the affected counties, many more of the world's best players are involved in the authorised Indian Premier League, ruling them out of a large portion of the English season.
With English players also certain to be targeted by the overwhelming wealth of the Indian 'super leagues' it appears that the days of the best players in the world taking part in county cricket appear to be over.
The IPL was only set up by the Indian board (the BCCI) as a response to the supposed threat of the ICL. The truth is, however, that the official IPL represents far more of a threat to English cricket than the 'rebel' ICL.
While the ICL ends at the start of April, the IPL runs until the start of June. Furthermore, the ILP's organisers have already expressed an intent to involve English players, asking the International Cricket Council to alter the international schedule and presuming that county cricket is irrelevant.
Indeed, such are the sums involved that it is entirely possible that England players will opt out of international tours in order to take part in one of the leagues.
"We have a huge amount of pressure from the English players to be participating in it," IPL supremo Lalit Modi said. "Sooner or later we will look at adjusting our programmes while we try to bring our league forward."
It is unclear why the England and Wales Cricket Board are being so supportive of the Indian board. Though the ECB claim, ridiculously, that their intention is "protecting anti-doping and anti corruption measures" their real motives are almost always financial.
However, there is little indication that the BCCI will share the proceeds of the IPL. Though the BCCI have indicated that the first of an annual 'champions league' involving the two best domestic Twenty20 sides from each country will take place this autumn, there is considerable doubt that such a tournament will take place.
Officials at Warwickshire and Worcestershire could be forgiven for wearing smug smiles this morning, however. The clubs tried to sign Mushtaq Ahmed and Shane Bond respectively for this season and, had they been successful, they would be dealing with the consequences.
The indications are also that the captains of both sides, Darren Maddy and Vikram Solanki, will be immune from sanction. Though the pair took part in the first ICL they signed contracts before the full implications were appreciated. So long as they, or Boyd Rankin, do not take part in any further tournaments it is understood that the Indian board will not demand their exclusion. It says much for the balance of power in international cricket that the BCCI can issue threats over the make-up of county sides in England.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire (Rana Naved-ulHasan), Hampshire (Bond), Sussex (Mushtaq Ahmed) and probably Glamorgan (Jason Gillespie) will be forced to look elsewhere for overseas players.
The ECB have moved into line with other national bodies by suggesting they will effectively ban players who join the ICL. Firstly, overseas players look certain to be denied the necessary 'no objection certificates' from their home boards but the ECB are also likely to decline registration requests for players involved.
The counties may hope the threats convince players to turn their backs on the ICL but such thoughts are probably naive. The players are contracted to the ICL and will face legal sanctions should they fail to turn up. For Sussex, in particular, the news is a hammer blow. Mushtaq has been an enormous part of successive championship triumphs and his apparent departure weakens them immeasurably.
Brian Lara, who was much closer to signing with Warwickshire last season (despite Mark Greatbatch's objections) than has been made public, would also appear to have no chance of a return to county cricket. Quite how the county game is better for the absence of such great players remains unclear.
