SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Cricket Australia have dismissed as “highly speculative” media reports that Michael Clarke and David Warner will be offered A$50 million ($39.37 million) contracts to defect to an Indian-financed rebel cricket league.
Fairfax media on Friday quoted unnamed sources as saying Clarke and Warner would be targeted as “priority acquisitions” on lucrative 10-year deals to play in an international Twenty20 league run by a new global governing body.
“We are aware of the reports around a rebel league and they remain highly speculative, particularly given the proposed scale and complexity,” Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards said in a statement.
“Australian cricket has never been in better health. Record crowds, television audiences, grassroots participation and commercial support continue to drive record revenue which means player payments have never been higher and will only increase.
“As it stands, Australia’s cricketers are the highest paid athletes of any team sport in the country and the earnings of our top-ranked players would already be close to the numbers referenced in today’s media reports.”
According to Australian magazine BRW, all rounder Shane Watson was the best-paid cricketer in the country last year with a total of A$4.5 million ($3.54 million) in on and off-field earnings.
Friday’s report was the latest in a string of stories about the new cricketing structure being set up by Indian entertainment conglomerate, the Essel Group.
The breakaway structure would be looking to exploit dissatisfaction in the game surrounding last year’s deal brokered by the existing governing body, the International Cricket Council.
That “Big Three” model gives India, England and Australia a greater say in the running of the game and a bigger share of the revenues deriving from international cricket.
Any breakaway move would have echoes of Australian tycoon Kerry Packer’s rebel World Series, which reinvigorated the game with the popularisation of one-day cricket in the 1970s.
