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Abu Dhabi: Rajiv Khanna was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) currently progressing Abu Dhabi T10 The September League earlier this year, while he was aware of the challenges ahead, his vision was clear – to make the league global in every way.
in conversation with exclusive cricket nationKhanna speaks at length about the challenges he faces trying to ensure the league’s legacy lives on, his relationship with the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) And how he firmly believes that T10 has great potential – not only from a cricketing point of view, but from a commercial point of view as well.
currently progressing Abu Dhabi T10 League With 1,600 international players registered for the tournament, Khanna expects it will only get better and bigger.
“It has huge potential. I say potential in many ways. From a cricket point of view, I can say we have around 1600 international players registered around the world. We have to pick 250 out of them, from a commercial point of view. – Yes, the companies are very, very keen to learn about it. We have some great franchise owners and big corporations are interested. We expect a lot of corporate and sports powerhouses to take part in this event in the near future ,” Khanna said.
“My vision is to make it more appealing to the fans. What I’m seeing right now is that the product has huge potential. This potential, that’s what I want to achieve now in the first few years,” he said during the T10 event in Abu Dhabi.league in Zayed Cricket Ground.
“That’s the whole idea of how we get more people involved. As I said, the game has a lot of potential, and we’re also looking at how to make it global. As part of our global plan, we’re going to Five different leagues. We have an expansion plan. So we’re lucky to have the national board for the first time, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, sanctioning the league and we’ve just recently launched the Sri Lanka T10 league. We’re planning June Hosting this league in Sri Lanka. We are in the final stages of shutting down another committee – namely Zimbabwe, and you will see a league in Zimbabwe as well. There are plans to make it more global. Bring it around the world,” he further added road.
Only five former Indian players have been linked with the league so far. Harbhajan Singh is a member of the Delhi Bulls while Suresh Raina plays for the Deccan Gladiators in the Abu Dhabi T10 League. Apart from these two, Stuart Binny, the son of BCCI President Roger Binny, is playing for the New York forwards, Abhimanyu Mithun is linked with the Northern Warriors, and S Sreesanth is drawn to the Bengals.
Talking about the participation of more Indian players, Khanna revealed, “Because of BCCI’s contract policy, we only have retired or recently retired players. So we are targeting players who can join. We have Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth, our aim is more. The point is – gamers love this product.”
“I think this product is more suitable for games like the Olympics. In the Olympics, there is no other sport for more than 90 minutes except golf, which is a different sport anyway. So this format is best for the Olympics, because it Soon, 3-4 matches can be played in the same stadium in a day. There is definitely room for T10 in the Olympics as many countries are participating,” Khanna said of cricket being considered an Olympic sport one day .
Highlighting the challenges he faced trying to hold an event of this magnitude in two weeks, Khanna said: “What you see on camera is not just the crickets you see. There are many things behind the scenes, like unsung heroes, those The people who really help deliver the product and make it look like it, and the back-to-back games, that tire the people and the players brilliantly.
“My team leaves the hotel every morning at 8am and returns at midnight. We do a lot of things behind the scenes – like logistics and production, and I would encourage people to treat this professionally as it will be in the future in the UAE, India or wherever. There’s a lot of room to grow everywhere. The sport is growing and there’s definitely a shortage of talent who can meet the demand and the supply. We need to cover that. It’s challenging, but when you see the end product, it’s very satisfying.”
Talking about his relationship with the IPL, the former Rajasthan Royals manager gives most of the credit to the IPL for shaping his sports management career.
“Whatever I am today is because of the IPL. The challenges and experiences we have gained in the IPL are unique. Now all the other upcoming leagues are based on the IPL. Therefore, the IPL cannot be compared with any other league. With IPL has had a wonderful journey of 14 years together,” he concluded.
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