Former BCCI president and the current ICC Vice-President Sharad Pawar along with ICC president David Morgan and CEO Haroon Lorgat met rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) chief Subhash Chandra in New Delhi on Monday evening.

ICL wants ICC to recognize it as an official league. From the very beginning, the BCCI had adopted a hard-line approach against the ICL, barring Indian cricketers associated with the league from accessing even their local college grounds. It also used its significant influence within the ICC to ensure other national boards imposed similar bans on ICL cricketers and officials.

The ICC's board had instructed the BCCI to discuss the issue with the ICL and then report back to it. Experts believe that ICC now wants a "logical and common sense approach" to protect those cricketers already associated with the ICL and banned from all forms of official cricket.

It is also suspected that Pawar is working out ways of how to join hands with the ICL.

ICC is now expected to discuss the draft regulations and the ICL issue at its board meeting in Perth on January 31.

It may be here recalled that teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka have softened their stance on ICL. Sri Lanka had even allowed six of its ICL players to play in a domestic tournament.