The auction marks Saudi Arabia’s first major play in cricket, though the foundations have been laid gradually. Prince Mishal bin Saud Al-Saud, chairman of the Saudi Arabia Cricket Federation (SACF), was pictured with BCCI secretary Jay Shah at the opening match of IPL 2023, while state-backed Saudi companies have signed lucrative sponsorship deals in the past.
It is the second auction in a row staged overseas, after last year’s was held in the more familiar cricketing destination of Dubai, but Saudi Arabia represents new ground. Prince Saud said that the deal to stage the auction in Jeddah showed “the depth of [Saudi Arabia’s] relationship with the BCCI and its honorary secretary Jay Shah” – who will become ICC chair on December 1.
Saudi Arabia has a stated aim for India to be its biggest source of tourists by 2030. Hosting the auction – which was watched by over 20 million viewers last year on Star Sports – will ensure at least two full days of publicity in India, in addition to the regular Visit Saudi plugs during TV coverage of last year’s IPL.
Cricket remains a fringe sport in Saudi Arabia with minimal infrastructure and a nascent domestic structure. The men’s national team, which sits 33rd in the ICC’s T20I rankings, lost preliminary World Cup qualifiers to Bahrain and UAE earlier this week, while their women’s team have been thrashed in their only five T20Is to date.
But it only takes a glance at the wider landscape to realise the potential ramifications of Saudi investment. The kingdom has already been a major sporting disruptor: it now dominates the boxing landscape, with Riyadh hosting world heavyweight title fights between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. The Saudi Pro League has signed leading footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema from European giants Manchester United and Real Madrid.
Two years ago Saudi Arabia sparked a civil war in the world of professional golf by offering leading players astronomical sums to resign from the established PGA Tour and play in the breakaway LIV Golf league. The two tours are now in long-running talks over a merger, one that would entrench significant Saudi influence in the sport. The country has the resources to have a similar effect on cricket.
Saudi investment in sport forms part of “Vision 2030”, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s long-term strategy to diversify an economy that is hugely reliant on one finite natural resource: oil. It has prompted a spending spree by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF (Public Investment Fund), including the purchase of Newcastle United in English football’s Premier League.
It is also designed to distract from the country’s human-rights record, described as “deplorable” by the non-profit Human Rights Watch. Saudi Arabia’s international reputation was severely damaged by the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi embassy, but it has recovered its soft power in recent years despite continued restrictions on freedom of expression in the country and its use of the death penalty.
The Saudi regime has faced regular charges of “sportswashing” and will again if and when it enters into cricket’s mainstream. But the sport has long been used by political actors as a means for soft power, from its origins as a British colonial sport right through to the staging of the most recent 50-over World Cup final at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Reports last year suggested that Saudi Arabia was ready to launch a breakaway franchise T20 league imminently, with players acutely aware of the prospect. “You can’t compete with money,” Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, told Bloomberg, “especially the money that Saudi Arabia is throwing around to certain people.”
But in practice, that is unlikely in the near future due to both a lack of cricket infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, and a recent ICC regulation capping the number of overseas players per team in any new league to four per playing XI. “The ability for Saudi to create these leagues is significantly hampered by how many [from] our player pool – or any other player pool – they can use,” ECB chair Richard Thompson told the Sunday Times.
Simon Chadwick, a professor of sport with expertise in the Middle East, believes that the controversy that surrounded the breakaway golf tour has prompted a change in investment strategy. “It has served as an important lesson,” he says. “LIV Golf proved to be far more controversial and challenging for Saudi Arabia than it first imagined, so what we are beginning to see now is a more collaborative approach.
“The Saudi Arabians are learning to play the game of sports politics more carefully… Rather than becoming entangled in a hostile takeover, it will look to do things through evolution rather than revolution. It was an outsider looking to enter the global sport industry and taking a position as a disruptor. Now it’s much more part of the orthodoxy, looking to work within existing structures.”
In cricket, a likely outcome is some level of investment in an IPL franchise or in the league itself, and an attractive offer to stage some games in Saudi once stadiums are complete. “That follows their model [of] bringing established competitions into their territory,” Thompson predicted. “They will put a lot of money on the table to get the IPL owners to play one or two rounds in Saudi.”
There is also a widespread belief within the English game that the PIF would be interested in investing in the Hundred if it expands to include a franchise based in the north-east. Tim Bostock, Durham’s chief executive, said last year: “The Saudis have bought Newcastle United just down the road… They are building a portfolio.”
The PIF intends to bring down the proportion of its funds invested overseas to 18-20% from around 30% in the coming years, suggesting a scaling back of sport investment. But multiple sources believe that the appointment of an Australian, Danny Townsend, as CEO of PIF’s sports subsidiary SURJ, points to the fund’s long-term ambitions in cricket.
The IPL auction is cricket’s biggest display of wealth, but consider this: the total salary cap for a single franchise, Rs 120 crore, is significantly less than the reported signing fee paid to a single golfer – Phil Mickelson – to play on the LIV tour. Saudi Arabia’s small first step into top-level cricket should not obscure their potential to change the entire sport overnight.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
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