Australia legend and former World Cup winning captain, Steve Waugh, is among the franchise owners unveiled for the inaugural European T20 Premier League (ETPL), owning the Amsterdam-based team alongside Olympic gold medallist Jamie Dwyer and Australian businessman Tim Thomas, as the league revealed its first three franchises on Wednesday in Sydney.

The Amsterdam franchise have also roped in Australia's T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh as their captain, giving the team global recognition as the ETPL prepares for its debut season later this year.

Marsh, who was the Player of the Match in the final when Australia won their maiden T20 World Cup title in 2021, brings proven leadership, explosive batting power, and crucial all-round capabilities to the Netherlands-based franchise.

Marsh's signing is expected to generate significant buzz and drive interest in the new European cricket venture.

Waugh’s involvement marks one of the most high-profile ownership commitments in European franchise cricket to date. The former Australia captain heads the Abel Consortium, which has invested in the Amsterdam franchise as part of the ETPL’s six-team structure spanning Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. The ownership group has forged a partnership with Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Heat.

Queensland Cricket and Brisbane Heat bring deep expertise and experience on and off the field of cricket and will hold end to end responsibility for coaching, talent identification, high-performance systems, analytics and building the team culture.