New Delhi, Apr 2: The Indian Cricket League (ICL) announced its forthcoming tournament `ICL 20s World Series 2008.` A tri-series, the tournament will have three teams - ICL India, ICL Pakistan and ICL World competing for the title. It will be held from April 9th to 15th at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad. The tournament will have in total 7 matches, with each team playing against each other twice, followed by finals. The high-octane 20over format matches will be broadcasted LIVE on Ten Sports & Zee Sports from 7pm to 10pm.

Announcing the ICL World Series 2008, Kapil Dev, Chairman, Executive Board, Indian Cricket League (ICL) said, "The level of cricket at ICL is on an ascendancy mode. Throughout the Edelweiss 20s Challenge, we saw our boys come out with stand-out performances, which shaped the results of some high standard cricket matches. With ICL World Series 2008, our promising domestic boys will face the toughest challenge of proving their cricketing credentials against two of the mightiest teams in the world. These Indian players will be selected after a thorough selection process by the Executive Board along with the Selection committee, based on their growth as cricketers and respective individual performance. The Final Indian squad will be selected after the Edelweiss 20s Challenge`s second semi finals."

"Currently the Lahore Badshahs have raised the bar as far as competitiveness goes. Now it is for the other two teams, especially ICL India to raise their standard of play to match up to the competition", Kapil added.

Inzaman-ul-haq will lead the formidable ICL Pakistan team while Chris Cairns will lead a galaxy of international stalwarts representing ICL World. Moin Khan will coach the Pakistan side while former England off spinner John Emburey will coach the World team. Steve Rixon, former Australian wicket keeper, will coach the Indian Team.

The ICL has now successfully executed 3 tournaments and by the 15th April will be 4 tournaments old. Starting with the inaugural ICL 20-20 Indian Championship held at Chandigarh (Panchkula), The ICL 50`s held at Chennai & Hyderabad, and the highly competitive Edelweiss 20s Challenge held in Chandigarh (Panchkula), Gurgaon and Hyderabad, The ICL World Series is bound to set new standards in the domestic cricketing arena.