Key - ICL men will play

Kent skipper Robert Key insists his side will ignore a threat emerging from India about possible Champions League disqualification.

The finalists of this year's ECB Twenty20 competition will qualify for the Champions League next autumn and a possible $5million jackpot.

But Indian cricket authorities BCCI are threatening to disqualify any county that fields players who have played in the unofficial Indian Cricket League.

That includes Kent fast bowler Azhar Mahmood, amongst others, but Key told Sky Sports News: "They will definitely be included in our first side.

"That competition is a long way away at the minute. It is very hard. We won it last year, you need a lot of luck, a lot of things to go your way. You have got a lot of games of cricket to come, so it is not going to be easy to even get to that part of the competition but our boys will be playing for us, no doubt."

Questions

Key admits there are so many questions arising from the Champions League that it is hardly worth considering at the moment. "To be honest it has only just come about over the last week or so," he said.

"It has been talked about for a while this competion, this Champions League thing. We have been playing a four-day game and we haven't had much chance to stop and take a breath.

"We also don't know what is going to happen, the actual rules of it, what is going to happen with these ICL players. The actual ins-and-outs and the finer detail.

"I think there are a few people pipe-dreaming about what they might do if they won it and how they'd spend the money. But that's the other thing, you don't know how they are going to split the money. If we went out there and won it are they going to split it between the 11 players playing in the game? I very much doubt it.

"So there are so many things you need to find out about this competition, there is so much cricket that needs to be played. All I can say for sure is that the ICL players we have got will be playing for Kent tomorrow."

Confused

Fifteen of the 18 counties have ICL players on their books including Lancashire, whose captain Stuart Law played in the league.

The Australian told Sky Sports News: "I am as confused as everybody else. We get told one thing... I just don't know where we stand.

"Lancashire just want to put out the best team we possibly can and if the ramifications are we get disqualified, well I don't think people can stop people playing cricket, that is the bottom line.

"All the guys playing ICL are doing is playing cricket, providing for their families. That is all they want to do. I don't think anyone can stand in their way."

News Source : http://www.skysports.com/