Sydney, Aug 5 (PTI) The International League (ILT20) in UAE has reportedly offered 15 top Australian players a whopping AUD 700,000 deals to ditch the Big Bash League (BBL), dates of which are overlapping, causing considerable tension in Cricket Australia (CA)’s ranks.
The UAE T20 League, which will be a 6-team tournament, is all set to commence next year and it will be a 34-match event as each team will be playing the others twice in the league, followed by four playoff matches.
The Big Bash League will be played between December 13 to February 4 while the inaugural edition of ILT20 is scheduled from January 6 to February 12, making it virtually impossible for Australian players to take part in both the tournaments.
According to a report in Sydney Morning Herald,”As many as 15 Australian players have been offered contracts worth up to AUD 700,000 a year to abandon the Big Bash League and play in the UAE Twenty20 tournament in January.” Most of the top Australian players have no obligation to play BBL under their existing central contract, with Warner not having played a single edition since 2014.
The BBL’s highest payment till date from the draft has been D’arcy Short’s USD 258,000 (AUD 370,000) and the money compared to what has been paid to marquee Australian players in IPL, has been significantly lesser.
The International League T20 (ILT20) is set to become the second highest paying league in the world behind the Indian Premier League (IPL) and this has placed Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association under tremendous pressure to reassure players that they are not being left behind the rest of the world.
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