Australia’s captain Pat Cummins and deputy Travis Head were informally offered nearly $10 million a year each to quit Australian cricket and play in overseas Twenty20 franchise leagues full-time.

Top Australian players typically earn about $1.5 million a year from their national contracts. Cummins’ international cricket income is worth about $3 million once his captaincy stipend is taken into account.

The offers, made this year by an IPL team group, were politely rebuffed by two of Australia’s most valuable cricket assets, who remain firmly committed to the national team.

But according to three senior cricket sources not authorised to speak about private discussions, they have surfaced in talks between Cricket Australia, the state associations and the players’ union about whether to p

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