Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne are "behind an independent Twenty20 cricket league" offering contracts worth $25,000 a match to former int'l players, according to Peter Lalor of THE AUSTRALIAN. The former Indian and Australian players "plan to host a series of matches around the world," with the first to be held in three U.S. cities in September. The pair "plan to recruit 28 retired cricketers to the Cricket All Stars League and have sent initial contracts out in the past week." The former players are being offered $25,000 a match with 15 Twenty20 games "planned over a 42-month period." While the recruitment of former players is "not an immediate threat to established cricket," the Indian Premier League, Australia's Big Bash League and a number of officially sanctioned domestic Twenty20 tournaments have profited from the use of retired internationals. N.Y, L.A. and Chicago are "understood to be the leading contenders to hold matches in the first series in September." The U.S. is one of the "biggest cricket markets in the world after India, because of the number of Indian and Pakistani migrants." ESPN televised last year's World Twenty20 final in the U.S. for the first time and "attracted more than two million viewers." The broadcaster charged $100 to American fans who "wanted to watch the 2015 World Cup on a pay-per-view basis" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/15). The AAP reported it is understood Cricket Australia and the Int'l Cricket Council "have no knowledge of the plans," but Australian cricketer Brett Lee's manager Neil Maxwell "confirmed his client had received an offer and would be seeking permission from CA to play." The news follows a report two weeks ago claiming that Australian cricketers Michael Clarke and David Warner "were being targeted by an Indian conglomerate" keen to offer them A$50 ($40M) contracts to play in a new rebel Twenty20 league (AAP, 5/14).
