Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, coudnt help but smile on the impending collapse of the unofficial Indian Cricket League

The failure of the ICL now seems inevitable as it has been overpowered by the global economic crisis and the hostility of an Indian board determined to protect the status of the IPL as the world's premier domestic Twenty20 tournament.

I am not sure what ICL are planning to do now. Their failure is a tremendous loss for the game of cricket. They would have the much needed challenge to BCCI's monopoly on cricket. The brutality with which BCCI opposed them from the very onset was appalling

The Indian board landed the knockout blow yesterday as it revealed that its offer of an amnesty to Indian players if they left the ICL had caused an overwhelming exodus. Only five Indian players from the original pool of 84 remain. Many of the ICL's 54 foreign players have also left, including Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq and the South African Justin Kemp. It is inevitable that most of the rest will quickly follow.

England can now confidently anticipate a decent share of the spoils as it prepares to launch its own P20 county tournament next summer, with a growing likelihood that there will be a larger pool of international players available. The ECB is debating whether to allow as many as four overseas players in P20, and the collapse of the ICL should help to swell the number of potential signings.

The advent of the ICL caused fraught relations between the ECB and its Indian counterparts as English counties, claiming restraint of trade legislation, resisted any attempts to outlaw players who played in the ICL.

That led to England being pointedly omitted from the organising committee of the Champions League ??? a world club Twenty20 tournament that is now operated by India, Australia and South Africa. England have been given only one entry in the 12-team tournament later this year.

The ICL's failure seemed inevitable in February when three-way talks between them, the Indian board, and the ICC failed to bring an agreement. In April, the ICC again rejected the ICL's plea for official recognition.

ICL officials have refused to accept that the end is nigh and claim that they will soon be scouring India for new talent, but their cause looks hopeless. International cricket's next target will be to overpower a putative unofficial Twenty20 league in New York with their own latest attempt to crack the United States market.

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