Date:16/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/16/stories/2008091657191900.htm

Sport - Cricket

Yousuf may return to ICL

Karachi: After months of legal battle with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), senior Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf may finally end up joining the rebel Twenty20 series, thus ending his international career.

Sources close to the batsman have confirmed that Yousuf has conveyed to the ICL organisers that he was willing to consider joining them if they drop compensation claims and other charges against him.

The ICL took legal recourse after Yousuf — a veteran of 79 Tests and 269 ODIs — first joined them in 2007 and then backed out of the contract under pressure from the PCB which assured him of a more lucrative deal with the official Indian Premier League.

But the ICL obtained a stay order, restraining Yousuf from playing in any other rival Twenty20 league, including the IPL.

Yousuf is set to file his reply to the ICL charges in the Mumbai high court on Tuesday where he has appealed against the stay order. The reply would be submitted by an Indian lawyer, hired to push the appeal in the Mumbai High Court. — PTI