Big money as Saudi makes foray into cricket with IPL auction

(AFP): Saudi Arabia hosts this year’s Indian Premier League player auction in a partnership between a money-spinning cricket tournament expanding its global reach and a kingdom using sports to improve its image.

De facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has backed extravagant sports investments — set to culminate in Saudi Arabia hosting the football World Cup in 2034 — to diversify its oil-rich economy.

Critics point to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, accusing the kingdom of “sportswashing”.

The two-day auction beginning Sunday in Jeddah is the first cricketing event of this stature to be hosted in Saudi Arabia, a country with an under-served fanbase for the sport among millions of South Asian migrant workers.

Saudi Cricket Federation chairman Prince Saud bin Mishal said that staging the auction reflected the kingdom’s “commitment to developing the sport and showcasing its position as a global destination for sporting events”.

Saudi Arabia’s big spending on sporting events had helped “to promote the narrative of a changing kingdom”, Rice University’s Kristian Coates Ulrichsen told AFP.

“To the extent that there is now a buzz associated with Saudi Arabia in football and in boxing, the spending has succeeded in changing the subject,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has in recent years recruited top footballers including Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar into its league while hosting world championship boxing, Formula One racing, tennis and golf.

Visit Saudi, the state tourism arm and state-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco have both been IPL sponsors.

Cricket already has a fanbase in the kingdom among expatriate workers.

Non-Saudi nationals account for more than 13 million of Saudi Arabia’s 32.2m people, over 40 per cent of whom hail from cricket-mad Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, according to the 2022 census.

The kingdom’s cricket federation is also trying to boost the sport’s popularity among Saudis and has launched a programme to introduce it in schools.

“There is a general perception that it’s a street game,” Kabir Khan, the federation’s head coach, told English-language daily Arab News in August.

“We need to change that perception.”