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When Saudi Arabia come calling, few sports can resist. For cricket, then, its Saudi Moment was only a matter of time.
Reports from Australia suggest the Saudis – having already invested in golf, tennis, football, boxing, F1, and e-sports – are planning a shake-up of cricket’s calendar, with four Twenty20 tournaments, involving eight franchises, dotted throughout the year.
It is being billed as cricket’s answer to tennis’s Grand Slams, and who wouldn’t want a piece of that?
Chief among the rumoured benefits of a competition that could eat up eight weeks of an already crammed schedule is Test cricket itself, with the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting it might generate an ‘alternative revenue source beyond cricket’s established funding model’.
In other words, Test cricket below the so-called Big Three of India, England and Australia could receive a shot in the arm.
The Test format has been assured of its future so often, in so many ways, that our first reaction ought not to be surprise.
The ECB believe the cricketing calendar already has a Grand Slam-style format like Saudi investors are suggesting
The Indian Premier League is a behemoth and its growth shows no signs of stopping
The Saudis have already bought into boxing, football, Formula One, tennis and more sports
After all, if you want to convince a sceptical world of your honourable intentions, say something – anything – to keep the traditionalists happy. But it is reasonable to raise an eyebrow at the basic premise: that the way to save Test cricket is by staging more… T20!
The Saudis, though, face another problem, and it is logistical rather than philosophical: the ECB will go nowhere near their proposed venture. Rumours of the plans first reached Lord’s a while ago, but their belief is that cricket already has a four-tournament grand slam, made up of the IPL, the Hundred, the Big Bash and the SA20 – none of them overlapping, all of them lucrative.
Essentially, the ECB – still basking in the afterglow of the Hundred auction, and keen to protect its value – regard the Saudi plans as an Australian initiative.
And they regard as pie in the sky the notion that Indian players, who are currently prohibited from taking part in any domestic T20 tournament other than the IPL, will bless the venture with their presence. If Indian and English players are absent, it is hard to see how it gets off the ground.
This won’t stop excitable talk, of course, because cricket – so full of existential angst – loves the thought that the rich and powerful are looking in its direction. But even if the plans fall flat, it is worth looking again at the significance of any potential Saudi investment.
Danny Townsend, a one-time semi-professional Australian footballer who is now chief executive of Saudi Arabia’s SRJ Sports Investments, the sports arm of the kingdom’s mega-wealthy sovereign wealth fund (over £700bn at the last count), has dismissed critics of the Saudis’ growing involvement in sport as a ‘noisy minority’.
He recently told SportsPro: ‘I think sportswashing is almost a little bit of a joke these days. Which industry doesn’t want to improve their reputation and improve the way they go about doing their business?’
On the one hand, then, sportswashing claims are a joke. On the other, sportswashing – or ‘improving reputations’, if you like – is precisely what the Saudis are doing. And to judge by the anger among Newcastle United fans after anyone dared broach the subject following their first domestic trophy in 70 years, they are doing it effectively.
To judge by the anger among Newcastle United fans after anyone dared broach the subject following their first domestic trophy in 70 years, the Saudis are sportswashing effectively
An artist’s impression of Neom, the proposed Saudi megacity supposedly fit to be a host venue at the 2034 football World Cup
Some might argue they have a job on their hands, given the dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. And that’s before you get on to the migrant labourers busy helping build Neom, Saudi Arabia’s proposed megacity, and readying the kingdom for the 2034 football World Cup.
An ITV report last year claimed 21,000 have died there since 2016, a figure the Saudis call ‘misinformation’. The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, believe that 13,685 of their compatriots perished in Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2022. The Saudis say they have in place ‘robust regulations and standards’. The arguments continue.
You’d be forgiven for thinking cricket is in its first throes of agonising over the wisdom of helping Saudi Arabia cleanse its reputation. Far from it. In October 2022, the ICC agreed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil company that is believed to be the single-biggest corporate contributor to greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. More recently, the IPL mega auction took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city after the capital, Riyadh.
And because cricket is so poorly administered – the ICC are more synonymous than ever with India following the appointment as chair of Jay Shah, previously the honorary secretary of the BCCI – it is easy to see why the Saudis might believe there is a gap in the market.
One other hurdle. At present, any new ICC-backed domestic competition stipulates a maximum of four overseas players from Full Member nations per franchise. The Full Members are the 12 Test nations, so if the host country – like Saudi Arabia – is only an Associate Member, the quality of the cricket will suffer, along with the competition’s credibility.
But – and it’s a big but – if Jay Shah can be persuaded that it is somehow in Test cricket’s interests to support the Saudi initiative, then is it conceivable that an exception could be made. At present, for instance, the IPL-backed ILT20 in the UAE allows as many as nine overseas cricketers per playing XI. The Saudis would have to push for something similar.
It’s hard to believe the venture could succeed without a relaxation of those regulations. And it’s difficult to see precisely how cricket carves out another eight weeks. Then again, would the plans have got this far if they were destined for failure? For all the ECB’s disinclination to get involved, something is afoot.
Such is the chaos of cricket administration, and so susceptible is the sport to a sugar daddy, that nothing can be ruled out – England or no England.
The IPL-backed ILT20 in the UAE allows as many as nine overseas cricketers per playing XI, including the likes of England’s Alex Hales (left) and Tom Banton
ICC chairman Jay Shah (pictured with Rohit Sharma) was previously the head of Indian cricket
The danger of sport and politics mixing
Do sport and politics mix? It depends who you ask.
When Pakistan all-rounder Aamer Jamal turned up for training during the Test series against England over the winter, he had written the number 804 on his floppy hat – not ostentatiously, but on its underside.
This gesture cost him around £3,000, the rough equivalent for a Pakistani Test cricketer of five and a half match fees – so rather more than a slap on the wrist.
Jamal’s crime was to draw attention, however quietly, to the prison number of Imran Khan, the country’s former World Cup-winning captain and prime minister, who is currently languishing in a cell on charges of corruption and other matters.
Imran says those charges are politically motivated. His many supporters agree, chanting ‘804’ at rallies; it has even been heard at one or two Pakistan Super League games. Evidently, you get involved at your peril.
Aamer Jamal’s crime was to draw attention, however quietly, to the prison number of Imran Khan, the country’s former World Cup-winning captain and prime minister
Calendar chaos hits Corbin
Back, briefly, to Saudi Arabia: how would a new tournament elbow its way into the schedule anyway?
The case of Corbin Bosch, who made his Test debut for South Africa over the winter, sums up the conundrum.
Corbin Bosch (right) signed for Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL in January, but recently jumped ship to Mumbai Indians in the IPL
Having initially signed for Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL in January, he recently jumped ship to Mumbai Indians in the IPL, filling a hole left by his injured compatriot Lizaad Williams.
In a bid to discourage others from doing the same, the Pakistan board have issued Bosch with a legal notice alleging breach of contract. Expect more disquiet as everyone grabs for a slice of cricket’s pie.
Sam Billings won’t get his wish to be England white-ball captain, but they could do with some of his gusto
Billings’ bold declaration
If England’s recent white-ball cricket has lacked confidence, then appointing Sam Billings as captain clearly wouldn’t make matters worse.
‘There’s a reason why your name gets mentioned, if I’m honest,’ he said at Kent’s media day.
‘My track record over the last few years: every team I go into, it gets better.’
It won’t happen – but England could do with some of his gusto.
