Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar To Form Twenty20 All Star League

Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s leg-spin genius Shane Warne have joined hands to form what is supposedly a new Twenty20 league for retired cricketers across the globe.

According to reports the league will comprise of 15 matches spread across four years which will be played at different venues all over the world.

United States of America will be the host for the initial round of matches which is expected to get underway in September with Chicago, New York and Los Angeles being the venues.

Warne and Tendulkar have set their eyes on 28 former international players with contracts already in the stage of circulation.

Each retired player who will be a part of the league will get a match fee of $25,000 and a signing amount of $10,000 which will reach the player within 30 days of inking the contract.

Although the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket Australia (CA) denied speculations regarding such a league, it is believed that they will not have objections as long as current players aren’t being signed.

Australian greats Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee along with England’s Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff are some of the former players under the scanner.

South African legend Jacques Kallis is also in demand although the all-rounder has commitments with the Sydney Thunders in the Big Bash League in Australia.

Lee’s manager Neil Maxwell confirmed having received a contract for his client regarding the alleged league pending to CA’s approval.

"I can't see anything wrong with it, it's a group of retired blokes playing a game of cricket," Maxwell told News Corp.

It was in January this year that Warne had spoken in Twitter of a possible collaboration with Tendulkar for ‘something big’.

The Australian thereafter took to Instagram to claim that an exciting development regarding his combo with Tendulkar will be announced soon.

An official announcement regarding the players and other important details of the proposed league is expected to be out soon.

USA is seen as a market untapped by the cricket boards across the world and if this league materializes, it may well be a step forward in that direction.

© Cricket World 2015