Xtra Time Web Desk: As many as six England cricketers have been offered full-time multi-million-dollar yearly contracts by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises. The full-time yearly contracts will make the English players considering giving up their national contracts to take up full-time deals with Indian Premier League (IPL) teams.
Currently, all the 10 IPL franchises have their association with teams in most of the T20 tournaments across the globe. IPL franchises have stakes in SA20, Caribbean Premier League and Global T20 league in UAE. There is also an ambitious new T20 league set to launch in Saudi Arabia, which could attract investment from IPL franchises.
According to a report in “The Times,” “Initial discussions have taken place after at least six English players, including some international stars, were approached by IPL franchise owners and asked whether, in principle, they would accept a deal that would make an Indian team their main employer, rather than the ECB or an English county.”
“This development follows discussions among players’ unions around the world about the potential implications of 12-month franchise contracts, which would be a significant step towards the football model of elite players being primarily contracted to their team and released for international duty, rather than the other way around.”
The report though didn’t mention which franchises are in the fray of offering multi-million contracts to the top England cricketers, there was no mention of which players are involved in the discussion, either.
With T20 format set to get bigger with each passing year, one cannot rule out the possibility of ICC putting a cap on how many leagues a certain player can play in a calendar year. The only stumbling block which would stop players from giving up their annual central contracts altogether would be aquiring the NOCs required from the cricket boards to participate in a league.