MUMBAI: With three competing Twenty20 leagues scheduled for next January, the Emirates Cricket Board-backed ILT20 has reportedly set an early marker to ensure marquee T20 players sign on the dotted line. Not surprisingly, it’s all about the money.
As per ESPNcricinfo, each franchise in the six-team ILT20 will have an overall salary cap of $2.5 million. And although the highest wage slot $340,000, a marquee player can also get a maximum of a further $110,000 as a loyalty bonus.
The tournament runs from January 6 through to February 12. That is all of 37 days. As per the organizers, the each team will play the other five teams twice during the group stage matches before reaching the knockout stages. So a team that reaches the knockouts will play 12 games.
In comparison, the highest-paid cricketer in Pakistan Super League (PSL) can earn up to $200,000, in The Hundred its $164,000, while the most expensive foreign player in the Big Bash League gets $235,000 per season. Besides, the Big Bash is played over a much longer duration of nearly two months.
And while the Big Bash and CSA leagues limit the number of overseas players in a playing eleven to 3 and 4 players respectively, the ILT20 requires a much bigger overseas player pool (each team can have up to 12 overseas players in an 18-man squad) due to a paucity of local talent.
And what of big daddy Indian Premier League? The player purse for each team in the 2022 edition was Rs 900 million ($11.35m at current exchange rates).
To note, three of the six franchises in the upcoming tournament have been purchased by IPL owners – Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals The remaining three teams are owned by Lancer Capital, led by Avram Glazer, a member of the family that controls Manchester United, top Indian business conglomerate Adani Group, and Capri Global.
