Australian club cricket is all set to have some extra flavour this season with the addition of two marquees T20 stars. Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and West Indies’ Chris Gayle are close to signing a deal to play in a local Australian T20 tournament later this year.
The reports started doing the rounds of social media after the president of a Melbourne-based team confirmed the development. The Mulgrave Cricket Club, a local team that competes in the Melbourne Eastern Cricket Association (ECA) third-tier competition, has claimed that it’s finalizing deals with Yuvraj and Gayle. As per reports, they are also in talks with legendary West Indies and South African batsmen, Brian Lara and AB de Villiers.
“Yuvraj, Gayle signings 85-90 percent confirmed”- Melbourne cricket club’s president
“We are in negotiations, and with Chris (Gayle) and Yuvraj, we are nearly 85 to 90 percent there. We need to finalize a few things but it looks really good,” Mulgrave’s president Milan Pullenayegam told Cricket.com.au.
A few weeks back, Mulgrave managed to sign legendary Sri Lanka all-rounder Sanath Jayasurya as their head coach. They also confirmed successful player deals with Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan, two of Sri Lanka’s most renowned batsmen. With a few more potential marquee sign-ins and some sponsors lined up, Mulgrave clearly looks very committed to playing top-quality cricket this season.
“We’ve secured Dilshan, we’ve secured Sanath, we’ve secured Tharanga. And now we are working on finalizing agreements with a few other potential players. “There’s a good backing at the moment that will get us across the line. But we don’t want to be breaking even on it just yet. We want to be able to give back to the community and expand the structure of the club,” Milan further elaborated.
“Want to ensure best facilities for the players; hope they can contribute to the community positively”
Neither Yuvraj nor Gayle have yet addressed any negotiations with Mulgrave. It seems quite a challenging process for a club-cricket team to invest in such high-profile international players. In fact, Cricket.com.au reported that the club wouldn’t be likely to feature an international player in their lineup for more than two matches. However, Milan seemed confident that his club will manage to land a sponsor and ensure proper facilities for every player.
“It’s a process, with these big-name players there’s a lot of things we need to incorporate into their visits to Australia. We’ll provide them with accommodation, travel, food etcetera, and a lot of background stuff we need to organize for them. While here, we want to put them in contact with our sponsors and see if they can give something back to the club. So it’s all part of the negotiations and chats we are having with them.”
The ECA is set to kick off sometime in November this year. The group stage will feature 3 preliminary matches, following which, there will be 3 knockout games. The tournament is scheduled to last till early February.