NEW DELHI, July 18: India’s cricket chiefs on Friday barred two national stars from signing up with English counties because those sides included players aligned with a rebel Twenty20 league.

Veteran middle-order batsman Vangipurappu Venkatasai Laxman and young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla were not allowed to play in the English domestic cricket in a move seen as another attempt to crush the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Laxman was due to play for Nottinghamshire after India’s upcoming Test series in Sri Lanka, while Chawla was called up by Hampshire to replace retired Australian great Shane Warne.

“Our boys will not play alongside the ICL players,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) spokesman Rajiv Shukla said.

“It is the board’s policy not to have any dealings with the ICL or its players.”

The BCCI, which holds its own Twenty20 league, does not recognise the ICL, bankrolled by India’s largest listed media company, Zee Telefilms, and headed by former Indian captain Kapil Dev.

At least 15 of the 18 English counties field ICL players from across the world fearing restraint of trade action.—AFP