Cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne are the pivotal figures behind a new Twenty20 league for former international players, including Jacques Kallis, according to reports.
The Cricket All Stars League has offered players $US25,000 (R250,000) a game and plans to play matches in at least three US cities in September, according to a report in The Australian. The newspaper reports that 28 players have been approached to play 15 Twenty20 matches over a three-and-a-half year period. The US cities believed to be on the tentative schedule are New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The proposed new league comes on top of plans by the Indian-based Essel Group to start a rival body to the International Cricket Council and have discussed plans to pay current players Michael Clarke and David Warner the eqivilent of R500 million over 10 years.
Players believed to have been contacted by the All Stars include Australian greats Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath, former England captains Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff plus South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis.
ZIMBABWE TOUR IN THE AIR
Confusion surrounds Zimbabwe’s upcoming tour to Pakistan with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) still in talks with its own government over security concerns. Despite fixtures for the two T20s and three-ODI series being released and Zimbabwe naming a 16-man squad, the tour is yet to be approved by Zimbabwe’s Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), the regulatory body for all sports in the country, or confirmed to the ICC.
On Thursday afternoon, Zimbabwe Cricket issued a press release saying the tour to Pakistan had been “suspended” on the advice of the SRC.
Less than half an hour after sending that, ZC media and communications manager Lovemore Banda sent out an e-mail retracting the statement: ‘My apology Please do NOT run with the attached. Discussions are still ongoing and the final position will be announced as and when.’
It has been reported that Zimbabwe would stay at the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel. The Pakistan Cricket Board was reportedly going to spend US $500,000 on safety measures which included helicopter-monitored travel and 3,500 guards.
SIZE DOES MATTER
ICC cricket committee, chaired by Anil Kumble, meeting in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday will apparently discuss limiting bat sizes even further. With totals of 300-plus eclipsed with startling frequency, the balance between bat and ball was a major point of debate during the recent World Cup. The cricket committee is likely to discuss imposing restrictions on the size of bats as a means of curbing the number of edged boundaries and mis-hit sixes. There is a 10.16cm limit on the width of bats, but currently no limit on depth, giving bat manufacturers scope to increase the thickness of bats while improvements in technology help make bats lighter.
