Dev, India’s only World Cup winning captain and one of the game’s great all-rounders’, heads the Indian Cricket League (ICL), which is struggling to keep afloat after being deserted by players and officials alike.

Last month, dozens of players and support staff quit the ICL to accept an amnesty offer from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

But Dev said he had no plans to quit the doomed league.

“Look, on paper at least, the ICL still exists,” Dev was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

“I’m not hurt that so many have gone back to the BCCI’s fold. It’s a question of their future and if somebody wants to play for the country, then who are we to stop him?

“But, yes, they had been intimidated.”

ICL players were banned from official cricket around the world at the behest of the powerful BCCI, which organises the Indian Premier League, its own Twenty20 competition.

“I know the list of those who’ve returned to the BCCI includes some very dear friends, but I don’t hold any grudges,” Dev said.

“I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. Having done no wrong, I don’t see why I (too) should bow before the BCCI. I don’t wish to beg for forgiveness.”

Dev’s continued links with the unofficial league prompted the BCCI to keep him away from the unveiling of the 2011 World Cup logo in Mumbai on Tuesday.

However, two members of India’s 1983 World Cup winning squad – Dilip Vengsarkar and Balwinder Singh Sandhu — were present. Sandhu was among those granted an amnesty by the BCCI.

The NZC board voted on Thursday to welcome back any returning players without any stand-down period on the condition they had severed all ties with the unofficial ICL.

“Like other Boards around the world we have had to clarify our position on how to deal with former ICL players who wish to return to international cricket,” Vaughan said in a statement.

“We consider ours is a reasonable policy. Individual players need to make their own decisions over their future with the ICL.

“Today’s decision is by no means a guarantee of selection for any player — all former ICL players would need to earn their way back into the national side on merit.”

The decision means New Zealand’s former ICL players would be considered for inclusion in the national team as early as August, when they tour Sri Lanka.

“Many of the ICL players have had limited cricket over the past 12 months and there has been no ICL cricket played since 2008,” Vaughan said.

“The earliest time former ICL players would be eligible for selection is in August, which would amount to almost 12 months since the last ICL event.

“Taking all these factors into account the Board felt there was little justification for a further stand-down period.”

New Zealand lost nine international players to the ICL and Vaughan said they were keen to get all of their best players back.

Vaughan said pacemen Shane Bond and Darryl Tuffey had both already indicated their willingness to return to the New Zealand national side.

“There’s no question that New Zealand suffered heavily from the ICL,” he said. “Our national side lost a significant number of top players.”

The ICL is a privately run Twenty20 competition held in India.

It features several former international players from around the world but is not officially sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

Most international players who signed up were banned from selection by their national boards after complaints from the Indian cricket board (BCCI), which runs its own fully-sanctioned Twenty20 competition.

Earlier this week, the BCCI agreed to grant amnesty to welcome back their players who had signed with the ICL, paving the way for other countries to follow suit.

The BCCI on Tuesday said in a statement that the cricketers snapped their ICL ties to immediately become eligible for domestic cricket and would also be considered for international matches once they complete their one year cooling off period.

Among the 101 players and others who have deserted ICL, bankrolled by the Essel Group, were former internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta (Bengal), Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Sodhi (Punjab) and Hemang Badani (Tamil Nadu).

The 11 former cricketers who have quit the ICL are ex-Test skipper Ajit Wadekar, spin legend Erapalli Prasanna and 1983 World Cup-winning Indian squad members Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

Most of them were tied up with the ICL as coaches. Significantly, India’s only World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev, who is the chairman of the ICL’s Executive Board, has not severed his relations with the league along with former Test stumper and ex-Chief Selector Kiran More.

“The BCCI, after scrutinizing their requests, has written to the concerned state associations that these players are eligible to play in the domestic tournaments for this year”, said BCCI secretary N Srinivasan.

The BCCI secretary said that guidelines with respect to participation in Indian Premier League will be intimated in due course.

The Indian Board has already decided that such persons will have to serve a one-year cooling off period before becoming eligible to play international cricket for the country.

Though the ICL has been virtually emptied out of its Indian players, the rebel league put up a brave front and said that the league is not shutting down and will recruit new talent as and when it’s needed.

“We still have 40-50 players, out of the original 140-odd, on our roster and as and when the need arises we would recruit fresh talent. The League is on. We are not closing down. The next season is in October-November and it’s still early days”, an ICL official said.

Landers said that in all there were around 85 Indian players in their roster till the second season, out of which 77 have left their fold now.

“We had already left out two of them”, he pointed out, one of them being Mongia who had been suspended in October last for allegedly under-performing along with former New Zealand all rounder Chris Cairns.