PTI

Chennai, oct 24: After an intense recruitment drive, the rebel Indian Cricket League on Tuesday announced the dates and the venue for its high profile inaugural edition of the Twenty20 championship.

The league, which will have West Indies batting great Brian Lara and some other recently retired international cricketers as its star attraction, will be held in Panchkula, Chandigarh, from November 30 to December 16.

The tournament, to be played at Tau Devi Lal cricket stadium, will have 20 matches in all and will carry a prize money of USD 1 million.

The dates and venue were finalised at the ICL's executive board meeting here, giving the rebel body a head start over the BCCI's proposed Indian Premier League, which is scheduled to be held in April next year.

The tournament, a brainchild of Subhash Chandra-owned Essel group, will have 20 matches, which includes 15 round robin matches and five classification ties.

The grand final preceded by three classification matches will be played on December 16.

“The ICL Twenty20 championship will be held as promised, later next month at Chandigarh. We are working hard to deliver a very exciting tournament for the viewers”.

“I am confident that the public in this country will witness for the first time a fully professionally organised cricket extravaganza,” ICL chairman Kapil Dev said.