Saudi Arabia: After taking giant strides in sports such as football, golf, Formula 1 and tennis, Saudi Arabia is planning to invest heavily on cricket through a global Twenty20 league devised by an influential Australian cricket figure.

The proposed league will be akin to the Grand Slams in tennis, wherein eight teams will play matches at four different locations in a year.

SRJ Sports Investments, the sports arm of the $1 trillion Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), is backing the proposed league that is former Australian cricketer Neil Maxwell’s brainchild.

Discussions regarding the league with the International Cricket Council (ICC) are currently underway. The league is being developed in partnership with the Australian Cricketers’ Association, of which Maxwell is a former board member.

The report further claims that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is prepared to invest up to US$500 million into the league, making them the largest backer among a consortium of investors.

It remains to be seen how the new league is accommodated in what already is a jam-packed cricketing calendar, in which the cash-rich league Indian Premier League takes up two months.

Besides the IPL, the Big Bash League (Australia), The Hundred (England) and SA20 (South Africa) among several other league that occupy a major chunk of the calendar.

The proposed Saudi-backed league, however, has insisted that it aims to complement the existing leagues, instead of competing with them. It also intends to make itself an alternate revenue source for cricket, especially for the smaller nations, beyond the existing financial model that heavily favours the ‘Big Three’ – India primarily, along with Australia and England.

The fate of the league, however, hinges on the ICC chairman Jay Shah, who until recently was the BCCI secretary. In addition, the BCCI will have to lift its restriction on active Indian cricketers participating in overseas T20 leagues if they are to allow the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah to feature in this new league.