Melbourne, Oct.13 (ANI): Australia has squandered a once-in-a-generation opportunity to launch a lucrative Twenty20 tournament similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The proposed Southern Premier League - a franchise-based tri-nations competition featuring teams from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand - has come to naught.

The competition was intended to kick off in 2011 with cricket boards from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand operating an informal SPL office and even appointing an acting chief executive.But no suitable window has been found for the tri-series.

Australian cricket officials will now instead push ahead with alternative plans to make the domestic Twenty20 “Big Bash” competition into a bigger bash.

That will involve forking out extra cash to recruit more international stars alongside West Indians Chris Gayle (Western Australia) and Dwayne Bravo (Victoria).

“We want to try to add more sizzle to the sausage of the Big Bash in the coming seasons,” Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young was quoted, as saying.

“There were a lot of challenges with the SPL and business analysts were telling us we were better off trying to build our domestic Twenty20 competition at home,” he added.

However, CA points out it is a key stakeholder in the club-based Champions League tournament, which NSW and Victoria are currently contesting in India, with a staggering 2.8 million dollar first prize on offer.

The collapse of the SPL can also be viewed as a sign that Australia was too slow to emerge from the starting blocks when Twenty20 took the world by storm. (ANI)