European Premier League T20: Steve Waugh invests in Amsterdam EPTL T20 franchise as Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh sign deals

Former Australia captain Steve Waugh is among the franchise’s investors in the European Men’s T20 Championship which is due to be played by city teams in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands later this year.

The six-team T20 European Premier League (ETPL) was scheduled to launch in 2025, but the event was postponed because sales of participating franchises were not completed in time.

However, deals have now been agreed for three of the franchises with two separate groups of investors from Australia and one from New Zealand.

One such company is led by Wu, who heads the Amsterdam Flames, which is backed by a consortium that includes former Australian hockey player Jimmy Dwyer and Australian businessman Tim Thomas.

The Flames have already signed high-profile Australian internationals Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh as two of their foreign players.

Waugh, 60, said he was “impressed” by the opportunity to “take world cricket to continental Europe”.

“I will not be participating in the Mickey Mouse T20 competition. This is the real deal,” Waugh told BBC Sport.

“I wouldn’t have lent my name to it, or added my knowledge, if that weren’t the case. The players we’ve spoken to are very keen to play in this league.”

Bollywood actor and film producer Abhishek Bachchan is a part owner of ETPL jointly with Rules Sport Tech, a private Indian company.

BBC Sport has learned that the franchises were sold for £11.1 million ($15 million) over 10 years.

Teams will have a total salary budget of £1.1 million ($1.5 million) per season, with the inaugural tournament scheduled to begin on August 26.

The league is run in collaboration with the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.

It has been approved by the International Cricket Council, which sees it as a useful base for the wider development of cricket in Europe.

Bachchan said that with the “quality of players registered”, everything in the tournament “will be world class”.

“We are all geared up and ready to go, but the real hard work starts now,” Bachchan added.

“We are very confident in the stakeholders we have in place and expect the ETPL to establish itself in the global franchise tournament ecosystem.”