By Admin 
A group of major IPL franchises offered Australian captain Pat Cummins and vice-captain Travis Head a multi-year deal worth 1 million Australian dollars (Rs 58.46 crore) exclusively to play in the T20 league but both players turned it down. This claim was made in a report.
According to the report of ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, this offer is almost six times more than the amount that top Australian players get under the central contracts of their boards. These proposals were made earlier this year by IPL-backed investors in an effort to create full-time franchise teams.
“Offers made by an IPL team group this year were politely turned down by two Australian cricket legends who are fully committed to the national team,” the report said.
Senior Australian players earn around 15 lakh Australian dollars (about Rs 8.77 crore) annually from Cricket Australia (CA) contracts, taking Cummins’ total income to 30 lakh Australian dollars (Rs 17.54 crore) including captaincy allowance.
The report said the development came amid discussions between Cricket Australia, state bodies and the players’ association on the possible privatization of the Big Bash League, underscoring the growing financial strength of the global T20 franchise.
Head, who played in both the IPL and Major League Cricket last year, admitted that playing franchise tournaments gave him a glimpse of life outside international cricket but insisted his focus would remain on Australia.
“Right now I’m playing for Australia and I don’t see any time when I’ll really be playing anything else… I want to commit as much as I can to Australia,” Head said.