The much-awaited agreement between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Indian Cricket League has not come through. After a three-hour meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton in Johannesburg, the two parties failed to reach a common ground and as a result the matter has been referred to the all-powerful Executive Board of the International Cricket Council.

The contentious issues between the BCCI and ICL could not be immediately ascertained but the ICC, which has mediated between the Indian entities, said it was sad that a compromise could not be hammered out.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to come to a successful conclusion following our discussions. The ICL's application for approval will now go before the ICC Board," ICC president David Morgan said. The ICC Board will meet in Dubai in April. The reasons for the stalemate, it is learnt, was due to the stubborn stance of the BCCI, which was represented by its secretary N Srinivasan. The ICL was represented by its chairman Subhash Chandra and ICL's Business Head Himanshu Mody.

"I am grateful to all parties for coming together with the best of intentions and the discussions took place in a friendly and cordial manner but, unfortunately, we were not able to come to a successful conclusion in our discussions," Morgan said. (Vijay Tagore/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication )