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Indian Premier League 2007-08

IPL to decide on 'icon' status for Sehwag and Laxman

Ajay S Shankar

February 18, 2008

	Indian Icon: VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag may join Rahul Dravid in the list of icon players in the Indian Premier League, if all the franchises agree © AFP

The Indian Premier League's governing council has accepted, pending final approval, requests from the Delhi and Hyderabad franchises to name Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman as icon players, which means the two will only turn out for their respective home cities in the BCCI-backed tournament.

However, there is a stumbling block to the move. The decision taken by the IPL governing council needs to be approved by all eight franchises ahead of the players' auction on Wednesday. The IPL's original tender only had the names of Sachin Tendulkar [Mumbai], Sourav Ganguly [Kolkata], Rahul Dravid [Bangalore] and Yuvraj Singh [Mohali] in the 'icon players' category, and thus a move to add any more players to the list needs to be ratified by all the franchise owners.

"All the franchises will have to approve this decision as the original IPL tender had only four icon players," Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer, told Cricinfo. "The IPL [governing council] will meet all the franchises just before the auction on Wednesday for a final decision."

At an earlier meeting, the owners of the Delhi (GMR) and Hyderabad (Deccan Chronicle) franchises had made the request for naming Sehwag and Laxman as icon players. If all the franchises agree, then Sehwag and Laxman will not be among the pool of players to be auctioned on Wednesday. As icon players, they stand to earn 15% more than the next-best paid player in their team.

The Mohali franchise has already named Yuvraj as their team's captain, with Australian Tom Moody as coach.

Meanwhile, India Cements Limited, the owners of the Chennai franchise, announced that their team will be known as the "Chennai Super Kings" and unveiled their team logo as well.

Kris Srikkanth, former India captain, was named the brand ambassador of the team while former Indian batsman VB Chandrasekhar, who used to be a part of the selection committee of the Indian team, will be responsible for picking the players.

"Chandrasekar, having been an India player and also a national selector, has the requisite credentials to head our operations in so far as selecting the players for Chennai Super Kings is concerned," N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, said. "We plan to have 23 players in Super Kings."

Ajay Shankar is deputy editor of Cricinfo in Bangalore

© Cricinfo