Saudi Arabia Targeting IPL?

Instead of what should have set the cat amongst the pigeons in international cricket and more particularly, within the context of Indian cricket, both, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seem strangely ambivalent and even acquiescent of Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to host the richest Twenty20 tournament in the world.

Sending ripples through the IPL 2023’s third week was not the fate of certain feted teams or the state of Indian captaincy and the worrying injury list of certain players but rather the idea that the Indian Premier League might still make its presence in the form of a second tournament in the same year but also, that it could possibly be staged overseas in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia landing its stumps firmly into the yet unlaid ground.

It seems of little concern that Saudi Arabia, as things stand presently, does not have the infrastructure to host a tournament of this size or magnitude. And they are basically borrowing from the concept and emerging pattern mushrooming around the world where quite a few of the IPL franchises including the Mumbai Indians, the Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and then some have spread their investments around the world in places like South Africa, Dubai and the Caribbean where they also have teams in the various domestic Twenty20 tournaments.

While the BCCI, for the moment, remain steadfast on their stance that Indian players cannot participate in Twenty20 leagues abroad, unless there is a lucrative way for the BCCI to create a second IPL tournament as a proxy, an incentive that might tempt them to reverse their stance if only on a league to league basis. It seems for the moment, the BCCI have come to accept that they cannot copyright the IPL from being imitated outside of India though they can protect one key intellectual property – the currently contracted Indian cricketers.

Confirming the fact that Saudi Arabia had taken one step further after Aramco entered the picture of IPL sponsorship last year with Saudi Tourism Academy (STA) this year was the announcement earlier from the former IPL chairman, Rajiv Shukla: “Today Saudi Arab tourism authority joined hands with @BCCI as sponsor in IPL to strengthen cricket ties between the two countries. BCCI secretary @Jay Shah announced the partnership in presence of STA president along with me and @ShelarAshish”

Saudi Arabia is not unaccustomed to creating waves in world sport. A lesson that should make the BCCI wary and perhaps make their contracts airtight in the future is the fact that LIV sport the golf alternate tournament with the guidance of golf legend Greg Norman has virtually fractured the world of sport of golf. It drew the world’s great into polarising teams, and essentially devaluing the sport of golf as it has been traditionally known.

It has sometimes cost them their reputation on the field and often drawn flak for the off-the-track human rights record. Such have been the tentacles spreading across world sport that even as Qatar were officially hosting the FIFA World Cup last year, they fell into the same bracket as Saudi Arabia who have been accused of ‘sportswashing’.

It was a term that came to be used to describe the uncomfortable relationship that has remained strained not only with regard to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record when it comes to women and also, the LGBTQ community but also, even more directly after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

That, however, has not stopped Saudi Arabia in its tracks as is evident about the news in the course of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 2023 that Saudi Arabia was targeting the IPL franchise owners to come on board to its idea of hosting the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament.

That Saudi have already marked their presence on the cricket scene vis-à-vis Twenty20 and the IPL is obvious from BCCI’s partnership with Aramco for the orange and purple caps and this year with Saudi Tourism Authority this year to replace Unacademy who decided to take the IPL off their sponsorship table as part of their cost cutting measures.

Their uneasy relationship with various racing teams and drivers in Formula 1 racing is no hidden secret, the hosting of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix falling into controversy last year when a Houthi missile strike hit an oil depot not 10 kilometres where the Formula 1 teams were participating on a busy Saturday.

While Saudi have claimed their interest in putting their golden eggs also in cricket’s nest is to appease their over eight million Asian expats by “improving their quality of life”, there are notions of subtle world domination in the air, which would explain why there would be fewer better ways to influence public perception, opinion and investment than by through the route of popular sports.

Saudi Arabia has not been averse to football, investing in the purchase of Newcastle United in 2021 in the English Premier League and more recently bringing on board Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo to the Al Nassr club and even signing Lionel Messi of Argentina as their brand ambassador.

What marks a significant departure is the reaction from both, the ICC and the BCCI. That the ICC chairman Greg Barclay even suggested that it was in the natural scheme of things that Saudi Arabia, who is presently only an associate member, should want to have such high ambitions and enter the international cricket arena with a Twenty20 league of their own, suggests that the ICC might be lured by the sense of a broadening bottom line.

This given the headquarters were already shifted from the original Mecca of cricket in the UK to the UAE. Saudi Arabia would still need the vote of the ICC members in order to be able to float a league of its own.

That shouldn’t be a problem given the lack of an outsized reaction from the BCCI. The BCCI, it has to be remembered, scuttled a ‘rebel’ league known as the Indian Cricket League before it officially launched the IPL to avoid any sense of competition and worse, still rebellion and a fracture of world order.

The fact that Saudi managed to divide the golf world into such diverse halves and virtually decimated the sports map as the world has known it has not seemed to deter the BCCI from tying Saudi in sponsorships to begin with.

While players and franchisees have been averse to coming out in the open to admit that they might have been approached as the plans have been in the works for over a year, there are concerns that the franchisees would be broadening their horizons and their investments, which the BCCI has admitted it cannot prevent in a clear sign that while they hold domain over the IPL, they cannot control too much of world cricket vis-à-vis Twenty20 other than hold down a window.

But the bigger concern is of the fact that while these franchisee owners holding more than one team across various leagues around the world, they could eventually come around to the idea of signing up a player and having their player represent them across more than one league.

It is still a far-fetched idea since presently the cricketers need the stamp of approval of the ICC and the NOC (no objection certificate from their respective board) which makes it a tripartite agreement which would need to be modified.

Unless the BCCI sees a fair partnership, that could possibly mean a second IPL edition within one cricket calendar, it seems unlikely that the Indian cricketers would be allowed to wander and venture on their own into such an ambitious project without the BCCI somehow playing partner, agent, benefactor and beneficiary in this scheme.

But if there is something Saudi Arabia has shown, it is that they are not averse to controversy or courting trouble when it comes to establishing themselves on the sports arena.

But to what end will the BCCI acquiesce? Do they need to be reminded that controlling this kind of league will not be like squashing the ICL if the tournament happens to get too big for its boots? Will international cricket, already on mute, be in further jeopardy should Saudi Arabia enter the picture with outsized ambition?

There certainly seems to be a fair bit of that fear and apprehension as there is dangerous excitement, which would explain why even the IPL has taken a backseat to this news.