Saudi Arabia has been making long strides in the sporting business for quite some time now. Their newest sporting entry in the list for them is cricket. The Kingdom, known for its vast oil reserves that generate the majority of its massive wealth, is slowly but steadily venturing into cricket with its major investments. They have already demonstrated their soft power in Golf and Tennis with the aid of lucrative sponsorship deals. Can they create something as impactful in cricket?
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth management fund, was responsible for the merger of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour with LIV Golf, Saudi Arabia’s own tournament. It has also made inroads in tennis after making a $2 billion take-it-or-leave-it offer to ATP, WTA, and Grand Slams for its takeover.
These takeover attempts, while seen as hostile by many traditional admirers of the games, have also reaped significant returns for players overall. As for cricket, it hasn’t yet reached that far. But for how long?
Saudi Arabia in Cricket
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is by and large the biggest event in cricket in terms of revenue generation and wealth accumulation. It is light years ahead of any other cricketing tournament, including the major international ones such as the ODI World Cup. Two of IPL’s prominent sponsors have been Visit Saudi, Saudi Arabia’s state tourism arm, and Aramco, the state-owned oil giant. Aramco has also signed a long-term agreement with the ICC as its ‘premier partner’.
Moreover, the auctions for IPL 2025 were held last year on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This development comes after the IPL 2024 auctions being held in Dubai, another Middle Eastern nation besides Saudi Arabia. The 2024 auction was approximately watched by 20 million people. The numbers have likely increased for this year. With that many people watching an event where more than INR 600 crores was spent in a span of two days, Saudi Arabia has placed itself right at the center of the cricket world’s attention.
As per ESPN cricinfo, Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia said that securing the hosting rights for the IPL auction showed the “depth of [Saudi Arabia’s] relationship with the BCCI and its honorary secretary Jay Shah.” Jay Shah has since left his erstwhile post of BCCI secretary and has become the ICC chairman. Saudi Arabia isn’t jumping too fast into the cricketing arena either. Instead, it is launching its soft power with one foray after another.
Experts suggest that the rich Middle Eastern Kingdom will likely look to grab the title sponsor of the IPL in future, followed by hosting major cricket tournaments in the country, international or otherwise. Not to forget, the Visit Saudi advertisement has remained a constant plugin in TV coverage of both the auction and the IPL. This boosts their tourism sector significantly, especially among Indian people.
At the moment, Saudi Arabia doesn’t quite have the proper infrastructure or the domestic structure required to nurture a cricketing culture in the nation. It is prevalent in certain pockets and corners of the nation but not widespread. Without such a culture, it will be difficult for the nation to attract fans to the stadium for any cricket match. But their government believes cricket is still in its nascent stage and their constant involvement with the game will soon change how their countrymen look at cricket.
It will also be a long while before any country, let alone Saudi Arabia produces such passionate, fervent, and dedicated cricket fans as Indians, who also throng any cricket stadium in incredibly large numbers. However, money remains the biggest asset for Saudi Arabia, and when a bulk amount of it is offered to athletes, it becomes very hard to say ‘No’.
Saudi Arabia in Golf – LIV Golf
Back in 2021, Saudi Arabia spent more than $2 billion in creating their premier LIV Golf tournament. With funds from their PIF, they offered stratospheric sums of money to the topmost golfers like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to leave the PGA and join LIV Golf. Inevitably, the deal went through.
In June 2023, Saudi Arabia made another stride into cementing their golfing dominance when PGA and DP World merged with LIV Golf. It essentially created a monopoly of sorts in the golfing arena. All three tournaments now take place under the same Saudi Arabia-backed PIF.
This stride was exceptional since PGA and LIV were at each other’s throats until the merger. A burgeoning enmity and animosity was growing between the two leagues until Saudi Arabia quenched it in one fell swoop. The insane amount of money being offered to golfers barely made them hesitate before accepting the deal. For comparison, the total price cap for each IPL team is INR 120 crores, which is less than Phil Mickelson’s fees to play for LIV.
Saudi Arabia in Tennis
Saudi Arabia’s involvement in tennis is more recent than that of Golf. They had put up a whopping $2 billion offer on the table as a grand attempt to take over the tennis world from the ATP, WTA, and Grand Slams. It was also a ‘take it’ or ‘leave it’ offer. The situation of this takeover attempt remains complex, and no final settlement has been reached yet.
However, many former tennis stars have criticized the move raising some very practical questions. Former tennis star Laura Robson questioned the space for another tennis window to host a Saudi Arabian tournament. She was also worried if players will get enough time to rest in between the tournaments.
However, many tennis experts such as Brad Gilbert, Coco Gauff’s coach, raised the point that a Saudi takeover of tennis will only be a good thing for players. Gilbert believes that just like the Saudi-backed LIV golfers get paid a lot of money, tennis stars will also get incredible sums of money. He believes that tennis players are currently underpaid, and that a Saudi backing can change that for the good.
Moreover, to have gigantic superstars such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal backing this initiative only helps the cause. The exhibition tennis tournament 6 Kings Slam that was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last year is already a prime example of Saudi Arabia’s foray into tennis. WTA too has signed a 3-year deal with Saudi Arabia to host the WTA Finals in their country.
What Does it all Mean to Saudi Arabia?
Despite talks of dissatisfaction from the various corners of the sporting fraternity, Saudi Arabia have managed to make their mark in more ways than one. Securing rights to host at least one major tournament per sport allows them to soft launch their nation into the world. It also provides them with an opportunity to sportwash, and create an image about themselves as the hub for all sporting activities.
Tourism boost is another mega factor that Saudi Arabia is focused upon. They are using every major tool available to them in the sporting world to promote their nation. While the investments have been in billions of dollars, Saudi Arabia remains confident of their success model in the future. The oil-rich country is strongly dependent on a finite source for its wealth i.e. oil, and is therefore expanding its businesses to find more ways of revenue-generation. In doing so, targeting globally popular sports and investing in them became their go-to model.
