Waugh and Maxwell among investors in European T20 league

AFP/Reuters

London, Jan. 22: Former Australia captain Steve Waugh is seeking to conquer cricket's "last great frontier" as one of the investors in a new European T20 franchise competition set to feature Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh.

Organisers of the city-based European T20 Premier League (ETPL on Wednesday announced the owners of its first three franchises in Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Belfast in Sydney. 

It is reported that the three teams were each sold for US$14.9 million over a ten-year period.

Amsterdam will be owned by a group led by Waugh while Edinburgh will be owned by former New Zealand internationals Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills.

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, a global T20 star, is one of the owners of the Belfast team.

It is expected that deals for the remaining franchises in Dublin, Glasgow and Rotterdam will be completed by the end of February.

The six-team competition was planned to be launched in 2025 but was postponed and is expected to start in late August.

Waugh, 60, said the Amsterdam Flames had already signed Australia great Smith and Marsh, who is Australia's T20 captain.

Former Australia skipper Waugh, who scored nearly 11,000 Test runs, said the opportunity to invest in the venture "stood out because it is driven by aspiration and long-term thinking".

"In many ways, it marks a return to the game for me, but in a very different role," he said. "This is about helping uphold the standards and spirit of cricket while supporting its growth into Europe, which remains the game's last great frontier."

Waugh hoped the Amsterdam franchise would inspire more kids to take up the game. "Franchise cricket has the world's best players playing with locals," the two-time World Cup winner said. 

"At Amsterdam, the Dutch players will have the opportunity to play alongside players like Mitchell Marsh, the current Australia T20 captain, or Steve Smith, one of the all-time greats of the game. You can't buy that kind of experience."

Maxwell said: "The Irish people love their sport and Cricket Ireland have made huge strides in expanding the game over the last two decades."

Backed by the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, and approved by the governing International Cricket Council, the European T20 Premier League's (ETPL) founders include Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan.

"Mainland Europe is not known for cricket," Bachchan said. "It's an opportunity to create a huge cricket ecosystem in and around Europe. With ETPL, we hope we can bring the magic of cricket euphoria to mainland Europe."

The ICC has 34 members in Europe, most for any continent, including full members England and Ireland. Scotland and Netherlands have played World Cups, while Italy will make their T20 World Cup debut next month.

"Italy's World Cup qualification indicates Europe's interest in cricket, and cricket being in the 2028 Olympics is another boost for Europe," Bachchan said. "We hope to turn ETPL into one of the top T20 leagues in the world."

Bachchan said that the ETPL was on the verge of signing an Indian broadcaster soon. He was non-committal about whether any IPL franchises had expressed an interest in buying a franchise here. Initially conceived as Euro T20 Slam, the league could not take off in 2019 and its planned launch last year was delayed for the second time.