The Australian young gun sounded out by an IPL owner to join their T20 superpower

One of Australia’s most exciting young cricketers Jake Fraser-McGurk was approached by the owner of an IPL franchise to take out a year-round contract and play for their teams in the biggest Twenty20 leagues around the world.

This masthead can reveal Fraser-McGurk was sounded out by the GMR Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate that co-owns the Delhi Capitals, in February 2024 to play for their franchises.

Jake Fraser-McGurk knocked back an approach from the owner of an IPL franchise to play exclusively for their T20 teams.Credit: Getty Images

The explosive batter knocked back the enquiries as he still has aspirations to represent Australia in all three formats, and talks did not advance to the stage of discussing finances, according to a source close to the player with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The approach to Fraser-McGurk came about a year before an IPL team group informally offered Test captain Pat Cummins and star batter Travis Head $10 million a year each to quit international cricket for the T20 circuit. Both players declined the offers.

The interest from T20 franchise owners in Australian stars highlights the challenges facing Cricket Australia at a time when the changing nature of the global cricket economy means players are no longer as dependent on national boards for their livelihoods. Australian slugger Tim David is a regular in the national T20 team but does not hold a central contract.

Fraser-McGurk’s rejection of the advances is a sign young players still place a high premium on playing for their country over T20 franchises.

IPL franchises spoke to Australian players as far back as 2022 about signing 12-month contracts to commit year round to their teams instead of accepting central contracts from Cricket Australia, this masthead reported at the time.

Top Australian players typically earn about $1.5 million a year from their national contracts.

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Unlike Cummins and Head, who are proven international players in all formats, Fraser-McGurk, 23, is at this stage of his career a white-ball specialist who stands to make more money in overseas T20 leagues than from his state or country.

A freakish striker of the ball, Fraser-McGurk created a stir two years ago when he broke South Africa star A.B. de Villiers’ record for the fastest List A century with a 29-ball ton for South Australia against Tasmania.

Fraser-McGurk has played seven one-day internationals and eight T20s for Australia but has not been picked in the squads for the current white-ball series against India.

The Delhi Capitals bought Fraser-McGurk for $1.64 million at last year’s IPL auction, nine months after their approach to him. His salary for the 10-week tournament is similar to what the top Australian players earn through their CA contract.

If Fraser-McGurk had signed with GMR, he would likely have been required to play in T20 leagues in the United Arab Emirates and America.

GMR Group co-owns the Dubai Capitals, which plays in the UAE International League T20, Major League Cricket’s Seattle Orcas and is in talks to relaunch the Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League.

The conglomerate last year bought a majority stake of Hampshire county cricket club for a reported £120 million ($245.9 million).

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