In an interview to a news channel, Yousuf said, “I was compelled to join the ICL because of the behaviour of the board officials, the selectors and captain Shoaib Malik.”

Yousuf said that he had been under enormous mental strain and stress since the World Cup in 2007.

The 34 year old batsman made it clear that he had not joined the League for the sake of money.

"Money was never an issue for joining the ICL. I was getting paid by the board for not playing in the private leagues," he said.

Sydney, Nov 7 : Former Australian leg spinner Stuart MacGill has denied making a turnaround on his decision to retire from international cricket, but revealed he was working overtime to play for New South Wales again.

The injured leg spinner did not categorically rule out attempting a return to the Test arena, but said the travel schedule might be too taxing.

Sydney, Nov 7 : India must use its growing power in world cricket to keep the game on the right path rather than becoming obsessed with short-term issues like code-of-conduct hearings, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland has said.

He said there was little the rest of the cricketing world could do to match India’s power, so Indian administrators needed to take greater responsibility for the game''s welfare.

Scorching knocks of 88 and 51 by Nicky Boje and Stuart Binny helped Hyderabad Heroes to defeat Mumbai Champs by 79-runs in the ICL 20s Indian Championship match at Tau Devi Lal Stadium.

Batting first, Heroes piled 214 runs, the highest score in the tournament. Chasing this imposing total, Champs could manage only 135 runs losing six wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

Islamabad, Nov 7: The PCB is set to appoint former Pakistan Test cricketer Ijaz Ahmed as the new fielding coach of the national team ahead of the home series against India.

Ijaz, who is working as the National Cricket Academy (NCA) fielding coach, would be elevated as the national fielding coach well before the important series against India starting in January 2009, The News quoted a well placed PCB source as saying.

Nagpur, Nov 7: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gave farewell honours to four cricket greats of the country.

Leg spinner Anil Kumble quit as skipper this week while former skipper and batsman Saurav Ganguly will hang up his boots at the end of the ongoing fourth Test against Australia.

The BCCI felicitated Sachin Tendulkar and V. V. S. Laxman for their milestones of becoming highest run getter in Test cricket and for having completed playing of 100 Tests respectively.

The BCCI felicitated them at a function in Nagpur on Thursday.