What cricket’s top bosses really make of Saudi Arabia’s masterplans to ‘save’ the sport – and how England are fighting back, insiders reveal to LAWRENCE BOOTH

When Saudi Arabia come calling, few sports can resist. For cricket, then, its Saudi Moment was only a matter of time.

Reports from Australia suggest the Saudis – having already invested in golf, tennis, football, boxing, F1, and e-sports – are planning a shake-up of cricket’s calendar, with four Twenty20 Competitions, involving eight franchises, dotted throughout the year.

It is being billed as cricket’s answer to tennis’s Grand Slams, and who wouldn’t want a piece of that?

Chief among the rumoured benefits of a Event that could eat up eight weeks of an already crammed schedule is Test cricket itself, with the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting it might Produce an ‘alternative revenue Origin beyond cricket’s established funding model’.

In other words, Test cricket below the so-called Big Three of India, England and Australia could receive a Try in the arm.

The Test Structure has been assured of its future so often, in so many ways, that our Primary Reflex ought not to be surprise.

After all, if you want to convince a sceptical world of your honourable intentions, say something – anything – to keep the traditionalists Joyful. But it is reasonable to raise an eyebrow at the Essential premise: that the way to save Test cricket is by staging more… T20!

The Saudis, though, face another problem, and it is logistical rather than philosophical: the ECB will go nowhere near their proposed venture. Rumours of the plans Primary reached Lord’s a while ago, but their belief is that cricket already has a four-Bracket grand slam, Achieved up of the IPL, the Hundred, the Big Bash and the SA20 – none of them overlapping, all of them lucrative.

Essentially, the ECB – Yet basking in the afterglow of the Hundred auction, and keen to protect its value – regard the Saudi plans as an Australian initiative.

And they regard as pie in the sky the notion that Indian players, who are currently prohibited from Holding part in any domestic T20 Bracket other than the IPL, will bless the venture with their Appearance. If Indian and English players are absent, it is Difficult to see how it gets off the ground.

This won’t stop excitable talk, of Duration, because cricket – so Packed of existential angst – loves the thought that the Wealthy and powerful are looking in its direction. But even if the plans fall flat, it is worth looking again at the significance of any potential Saudi investment.

Danny Townsend, a one-time semi-professional Australian footballer who is now chief executive of Saudi Arabia’s SRJ Sports Investments, the sports arm of the kingdom’s mega-wealthy Unquestioned wealth fund (over £700bn at the last count), has dismissed critics of the Saudis’ growing involvement in sport as a ‘Rowdy minority’.

He recently told SportsPro: ‘I think sportswashing is almost a little bit of a joke these Intervals. Which industry doesn’t want to Boost their reputation and Boost the way they go about doing their business?’

On the one hand, then, sportswashing claims are a joke. On the other, sportswashing – or ‘improving reputations’, if you like – is precisely what the Saudis are doing. And to judge by the anger among Newcastle United fans after anyone dared broach the subject Subsequent their Primary domestic Honor in 70 years, they are doing it effectively.

Some might argue they have a Role on their hands, given the dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. And that’s before you get on to the migrant labourers Occupied Aiding build Neom, Saudi Arabia’s proposed megacity, and readying the kingdom for the 2034 football World Cup.

An ITV report last year claimed 21,000 have died there since 2016, a figure the Saudis call ‘misinformation’. The Bangladesh government, meanwhile, believe that 13,685 of their compatriots perished in Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2022. The Saudis say they have in place ‘robust regulations and standards’. The arguments continue.

You’d be forgiven for thinking cricket is in its Primary throes of agonising over the wisdom of Aiding Saudi Arabia cleanse its reputation. Extended from it. In October 2022, the ICC agreed a lucrative sponsorship deal with Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil company that is believed to be the single-biggest corporate contributor to greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. More recently, the IPL mega auction Captured place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city after the capital, Riyadh.

And because cricket is so poorly administered – the ICC are more synonymous than ever with India Subsequent the Slot as chair of Jay Shah, previously the honorary secretary of the BCCI – it is Effortless to see why the Saudis might believe there is a gap in the market.

One other Encumbrance. At present, any new ICC-backed domestic Event stipulates a maximum of four overseas players from Packed Member nations per franchise. The Packed Members are the 12 Test nations, so if the host country – like Saudi Arabia – is only an Associate Member, the quality of the cricket will suffer, along with the Event’s credibility.

But – and it’s a big but – if Jay Shah can be persuaded that it is somehow in Test cricket’s interests to Aid the Saudi initiative, then is it conceivable that an exception could be Achieved. At present, for instance, the IPL-backed ILT20 in the UAE allows as many as nine overseas cricketers per Competing XI. The Saudis would have to push for something similar.

It’s Difficult to believe the venture could succeed without a relaxation of those regulations. And it’s difficult to see precisely how cricket carves out another eight weeks. Then again, would the plans have Obtained this Extended if they were destined for failure? For all the ECB’s disinclination to get involved, something is afoot.

Such is the chaos of cricket administration, and so susceptible is the sport to a sugar daddy, that nothing can be Dismissed – England or no England.

The danger of sport and politics mixing 

Do sport and politics Combination? It depends who you ask.

When Pakistan all-rounder Aamer Jamal turned up for Rehearsal during the Test series against England over the winter, he had written the number 804 on his floppy hat – not ostentatiously, but on its underside.

This gesture cost him around £3,000, the Coarse equivalent for a Pakistani Test cricketer of five and a half Game fees – so rather more than a slap on the wrist.

Jamal’s crime was to draw attention, however quietly, to the prison number of Imran Khan, the country’s Previous World Cup-Victorious Leader and prime minister, who is currently languishing in a cell on charges of corruption and other matters.

Imran says those charges are politically motivated. His many supporters agree, chanting ‘804’ at rallies; it has even been heard at one or two Pakistan Super Bracket Contests. Evidently, you get involved at your peril.

Calendar chaos hits Corbin 

Back, briefly, to Saudi Arabia: how would a new Bracket elbow its way into the schedule anyway?

The case of Corbin Bosch, who Achieved his Test Premiere for South Africa over the winter, sums up the conundrum.

Having initially signed for Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL in January, he recently jumped ship to Mumbai Indians in the IPL, filling a hole left by his injured compatriot Lizaad Williams.

In a bid to discourage others from doing the same, the Pakistan board have issued Bosch with a legal notice alleging breach of contract. Foresee more disquiet as everyone grabs for a slice of cricket’s pie.

Billings’ bold declaration 

If England’s recent white-ball cricket has lacked confidence, then appointing Sam Billings as Leader clearly wouldn’t make matters worse.

‘There’s a reason why your name gets mentioned, if I’m honest,’ he said at Kent’s media day.

‘My track Achievement over the last few years: every Club I go into, it gets better.’

It won’t happen – but England could do with some of his gusto.