BCCI's monopoly should end: BJP

New Delhi:

The rebel Indian cricket League on Friday received a further boost with the Bharatiya Janata Party extending support to the venture which would "help in breaking the BCCI's monopoly".

"The monopoly of BCCI is not in the interest of Indian cricket. With the coming of ICL, the bureaucratic attitude as well as the monopoly of the BCCI will break," BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

"They (BCCI) always pose like a government body whose decisions are constitutionally binding. Nowhere in the world any association monopolises a game," Naqvi added.

He said ICL would serve as a new platform for all the players and BCCI should not ban players, if they join the rebel venture.

"It (ICL) will help all players including the new ones so it would be in the the interest of cricket. BCCI should refrain itself from banning players who wish to join the ICL.

"The kind of passion and craze this country has for cricket, we need more platforms for the betterment of the game," he said.

Naqvi is the latest political leader to join the ICL supporters after Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had openly come out to back the breakaway League.

Prasad has also offered to make the Railways stadiums available for the proposed Twenty20 tournament.