Meanwhile, Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin snapped his ICL ties and committed to English county Surrey. “It’s the right move to resign my ICL contract and I want to give Sussex every opportunity of progressing as far as we can in cricket,” Murray said.

NZC welcomes back rebels

Wellington: New Zealand Cricket cleared the way for fast bowler Shane Bond to return to international cricket by announcing on Thursday it would reinstate players who have severed all ties with ICL. Chief executive Justin Vaughan said the board of New Zealand Cricket had decided it would consider for national selection any player who had broken fully with the non-sanctioned Twenty20 league. Bond is the most high profile of the nine New Zealanders who have played in the ICL and the most likely player to quickly regain a place in the New Zealand team.

The others — Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent, Hamish Marshall, Andre Adams, Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris and Adam Parore — had either ended their international careers or were marginal selections when they joined ICL.