UAE’s cash-rich T20 league ready to make a splash in cricket

After months of speculation, stirring heated debate On ICC board and beyond, UAE’s new T20 league
United Arab Emirates
Ready to publish on January 13th.

According to my report in May, the month-long tournament hopes to become the second-biggest T20 franchise in the world after the behemoth Indian Premier League. It’s off to a good start with around $450,000 in prize money for the top players – the largest outside of the IPL.

It comes at the perfect time for notorious favorites UAE, but it means the ILT20 will go head-to-head with other T20 leagues, including South Africa’s inaugural event and Australia’s historic Big Bash League.

Unsurprisingly, the lucrative offer helped ILT20 steal some headlines from the BBL. The national governing bodies are already feeling the pressure to keep their best players, with Cricket Australia needing to pull out all the stops to keep star batsman David Warner coming to an end after a nine-year absence from the BBL.

Unlike other leagues, ILT20 offers more room for international players, with teams potentially fielding up to nine overseas players compared to the generally accepted rule of four foreigners per side in established T20 franchise leagues.

This has caused considerable anxiety, especially from Pakistan where the T20 league kicks off after ILT20. The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman at the time, Ramiz Raja, was particularly outspoken in his criticism of the ILT20 for allowing a maximum of nine overseas players per team, telling me in September that he hoped the ICC board meeting last November Discuss this issue further.

But nothing came of it, with ILT20 officials backing the structure of the tournament. “We prefer to commend the commitment we have received from the franchise to include at least two UAE players in the starting XI, as well as signing players from our colleagues,” said UAE cricket owner Mubashshir Usma Ni (Mubashshir Usmani) has sanctioned the privately owned union, told me.

“It speaks volumes about how this league intends to develop players and expose them to the makeup of a professional T20 league. It’s a long-term vision that supports our drive for sustainability and player growth.”

ILT20 wasn’t just a blip as a coalition based in the barren region around the UAE, home to the ICC and home to a large South Asian expatriate community.

It was backed by a sizable broadcast deal and financial resources. Three of the ILT20’s six franchises come from IPL owners whose tentacles are spreading across the globe to stoke fears of international cricket supremacy.

Unlike the new South African league, branded as “IPL satellites” due to the fact that every team has an IPL footprint, the ILT20 with the Desert Vipers, owned by businessman Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital, has a certain diversity and American flair.

Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and co-owner of soccer giants Manchester United, has been unsuccessful in his previous attempts to buy an IPL franchise to tap into the increasingly lucrative T20 franchise market.

Gautam Adani, currently ranked No. 3 by Forbes live list A billionaire who also owns the franchise.

The influential endorsement has spooked rivals and hopes to bolster the development of cricket in the UAE, a rising nation that took part in the recent T20 World Cup.

“(The league) has agreed to fund the UAE women’s team’s first-year central contract with the option to pay for a full-time women’s development officer,” Usmani said.

“What we can share is that the franchisee is developing a development plan that is run every year and that will have a significant impact on UAE cricket and will assist UAE cricket in managing the money that would otherwise have to be spent.

“The UAE Cricket Board wants to achieve very clear objectives with sanctions and we are committed to achieving them.”

The groundbreaking tournament is clearly the largest of the non-member states – the 12 leading cricketing nations receive more money and power than the rest.

ILT20 hopes to serve as a template for quasi-states often shunned by full members.

“We firmly believe that UAE cricket has the opportunity to set an example for those who need to sustain themselves through the processes and initiatives that we have and will implement,” Usmani said.

After much anticipation, and perhaps unease in some quarters, the ILT20 is finally here, and you doubt it’s here to stay.