IPL: BCCI, Saudi Arabia Tourism join hands in a bid to tighten cricketing ties between both countries

In a bid to tighten relations between India and Saudi Arabia, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) joined hands with Saudi Arabia Tourism that comes in as a new sponsor for the Indian Premier League, as announced by the board’s vice-president Rajiv Shukla in a tweet. This partnership means IPL for the first-time ever will be sponsored by the governing body for a foreign country. The cash-rich league that is into its 15th season now will begin in the final week of March and will go until April­-end or first week of May. The schedule for the same is yet to be out.

Meanwhile, Rajiv Shukla in the tweet wrote, “Today Saudi Arab tourism authority joined hands with @BCCI as sponsor in @IPL to strengthen cricket ties between the two countries. BCCI secretary @JayShah announced the partnership in presence of STA president along with me & @ShelarAshish.”

Other than Shukla, BCCI treasurer, Ashish Shelar also said, “Honoured to join @bcci secretary @JayShah ji and VP @ShuklaRajiv ji for the official announcement of a unique partnership of Tata IPL & Saudi Tourism Authority (STA). #BCCI.”

Success of WPL, IPL auction

This comes as a big move by the BCCI, who recently held the first-ever Women’s Premier League (WPL) player auction in Mumbai – a tournament that is setup on the same lines as that of IPL, and its first edition will be played from March 4th to 26th in Mumbai. At the auction, Indian women’s team opener Smriti Mandhana created history by becoming the most-expensive player as she was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 3.4 crores.

On the other hand, the IPL 2023 mega-auction was held on December 23rd last year where England players like Sam Curran and Ben Stokes made headlines for their price tags. While Punjab Kings broke the bank for young Curran, purchasing him for INR 18.5 crores, four-time champions Chennai Super Kings bagged the services of Ben Stokes for INR 16.25 crores.

Mumbai Indians, who bought the Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur for INR 1.8 crores at the WPL player auction, purchased Australian all-rounder Cameron Green for a whopping INR 17.5 crores.