Kapil takes legal action against India cricket board

Retired cricket great Kapil Dev has taken the powerful Indian board to court for alleged victimisation after he headed the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), reports said on Wednesday.

Dev applied to the Delhi High Court on Tuesday after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stopped his pension as a former international player and also sacked him as head of the National Cricket Academy.

"The only way of earning a livelihood for us retired cricketers is through the game and the board cannot, by illegally changing its rules and regulations, deprive us of the benefits," media reports quoted Dev's court affidavit as saying.

Dev, India's only World Cup winning captain and one of the game's great all-rounders, heads the ICL, which is bankrolled by the media firm Zee Telefilms.

The ICL's inaugural Twenty20 tournament, featuring retired stars like West Indian Brian Lara and Pakistan's Inzamam-ul Haq alongside domestic players, was held in November-December.

The BCCI not only refused to recognise the ICL but also banned Indian players involved in it from playing official first-class cricket.

The BCCI's own Twenty20 Indian Premier League involving top stars from around the world is slated to take place from April 18 to June 1.

Among former Indian players whose pensions were stopped by the BCCI for joining the ICL are Kiran More, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Patil, Erapalli Prasanna, Madan Lal and Rajesh Chauhan.