Top News

Saudi Arabia will enter the franchise cricket market in October with the launch of the six-team Dunes League T20, a tournament sanctioned by the Saudi Arabia Cricket Federation and designed around retired international players still active in domestic circuits.

The competition, scheduled to be played in Taif near Jeddah, marks the kingdom’s most direct cricket investment after years of gradual involvement through sponsorships and event partnerships.

The league is expected to include a maximum of four cricketers who have represented Full-Member nations within the previous two years, a structure that keeps the tournament outside the approval threshold of the ICC.

Salaries are projected to reach USD 100,000, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s continued strategy of entering global sport through high-value commercial models rather than slow grassroots visibility campaigns.

Saudi Arabia’s sporting expansion over the last five years has already altered football, boxing, golf and tennis calendars, and cricket had long been viewed as the next target. Speculation intensified repeatedly over a possible IPL rival backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, though no such project materialised.

Instead, Saudi Arabia approached the game through controlled investments, including ICC sponsorship agreements, hosting the IPL auction in 2024 and aligning with the UAE’s ILT20. The SACF also signed a long-term arrangement for the FairBreak Women’s T20 Challenge, though geopolitical tensions in the Gulf region delayed the tournament’s immediate rollout.

The latest league announcement keeps the focus on market positioning while avoiding direct confrontation with existing boards and tournaments that had feared a financially disruptive alternative circuit.

Read also: Andrew Flintoff Set to Shock Cricket World with Sydney Thunder Coaching Move

The Dunes League has been developed alongside the South Asian Network and talent agencies Unique Sports Group and Prolithic. Unique Sports Group represents players including Jofra Archer, while Prolithic manages India batter Abhishek Sharma. Former India allrounder Yuvraj Singh has been appointed as the league ambassador.

The Saudi federation had outlined provisional plans for the tournament late last year, stating that the league would place the country “on the global cricket map” and also “develop Saudi talent”.

While the event is expected to rely heavily on recognisable franchise names beyond international retirement, its regulatory structure indicates an attempt to remain commercially ambitious without provoking direct administrative resistance from the ICC or leading cricket boards.