- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the world’s most lucrative T20 cricket tournament and even national cricket boards find it challenging to get their players for national duty once the long tournament in India kicks off every summer.
But now representatives of the government of Saudi Arabia have reportedly held talks with owners of the IPL about a plan to set up the world’s richest T20 tournament in that country, The Age newspaper has reported.
According to the report, senior cricket administrators, coaches and players from a number of countries told it as well as The Sydney Morning Herald daily that they knew about informal talks happening for more than a year but sought anonymity due to their private nature.
The report also said that some discussions focused on the possibility of Indian players being permitted to play in the proposed league in the Gulf state. The Board of Cricket Control for India currently bars Indian cricketers from taking part in overseas T20 competitions and if they participate in the proposed tournament in Saudi in the future, it would be a first.
The Age report also said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) chair Greg Barclay confirmed Saudi Arabia’s interest in adding the game of cricket to its string of investment in sports. He also called the prospect as a “logical” next development for cricket in the region.
“If you look at other sports they’ve been involved in, cricket is something I imagine would be attractive to them,” Barclay was quoted as saying by the daily.
“Given their advance into sport more generally, cricket would work quite well for Saudi Arabia.
“They’re pretty keen to invest in sport, and given their regional presence, cricket would seem a pretty obvious one to pursue,” he added.
Any cricket league needs to have the sanction of the ICC with the assent of its member states.
It was also reported that Saudi Arabia has set the strategic goal of being the No.1 tourist destination for India in another seven years. The kingdom is an associate member of the ICC and encourages local men’s and women’s cricket programmes.
While the country’s cricketing infrastructure still lacks the kind of venues available in the United Arab Emirates that regularly hosts international cricket matches, it has put a special emphasis on large-scale venues as a key part of its building programme.
“Our aim is to create a sustainable industry for locals and expats living in the Kingdom and make Saudi Arabia a global cricketing destination,” Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation chairman Prince Saud bin Mishal Al-Saud told Riyadh-based Arab News in March.
