World’s Richest T20 League: The government of Saudi Arabia wants to start the world’s richest T20 league in the Gulf region. For this, there are reports that the Saudi government is negotiating with the IPL team owners.
World’s Richest T20 League: The franchise cricket league craze is constantly growing all over the world. After the success of IPL, franchise leagues have been started and successful in countries like West Indies, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the last few years. In the same year, T20 Franchise League also started in UAS and South Africa. These leagues are also getting good response. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian government also wants to set up the world’s most expensive T20 league here. It seems that discussions have also been held with the IPL franchise owners for this.
According to a report in ‘The Age’, representatives of the Saudi Arabian government have proposed plans to IPL franchise owners to set up a T20 franchise league in the Gulf region. The Saudi Arabian government hopes to make this league the most expensive league in the world. Discussions are ongoing with the IPL management regarding this. The Saudi government has been working on these plans for the past year.
Efforts to include Indian cricketers..
For the success of this expensive league, the Saudi government wants to include Indian cricketers as well. There are reports that they are talking to BCCI for this. Significantly, as per BCCI rules, no Indian cricketer can be a part of any cricket leagues run abroad other than the IPL. If any Indian player wants to be a part of these leagues, he will have to end all his ties with the BCCI. That means then that player can participate in IPL and other domestic tournaments from Team India. Meanwhile, it seems that the Saudi government may change the BCCI rules.
Saudi government invests in sports
Saudi Arabia has been investing heavily in sports for some time now. The Saudi Arabian government entered Formula-1 by launching the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Also in golf, the Saudi government made a huge investment and launched LIV Golf. Saudi Arabia has also acquired Premier League football club ‘Newcastle United’ from its public investment fund. Now the government here is looking for opportunities in cricket. Saudi Arabia is also the official sponsor of IPL 2023.