Saudi Arabia will host its first franchise cricket league for recently retired players, the Dunes T20 League, sanctioned by the Saudi Arabia Cricket Federation (SACF), in October with matches in Taif, near Jeddah.
The six-team league takes shape through a partnership with the Sports Asian Network and two talent agencies: Unique Sports Group, whose clients include Jofra Archer, and Prolithic, who manage Abhishek Sharma.
Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh will serve as the league’s ambassador.
The league targets players who recently retired from international cricket but continue to play on the franchise circuit.
Each team can field a maximum of four players who represented Full-Member nations in international cricket within the last two years, keeping the league below the threshold that requires ICC approval. Top salaries will reach $100,000.
The SACF announced provisional plans for the league late last year, saying it was designed to put Saudi Arabia “on the global cricket map” and “develop Saudi talent.”
Saudi Arabia has disrupted global sport significantly over the last five years as the oil-rich kingdom pushes to diversify its economy. It has staged major events in football, tennis and boxing, and its Public Investment Fund launched the breakaway LIV Golf tour, though the fund recently confirmed it will withdraw financing at the end of this season.
Speculation about Saudi Arabia entering cricket has been circulating for years, with talk of a T20 league to rival the IPL and a Grand Slam-style circuit floated by the Australian Cricketers’ Association.
The kingdom’s entry into cricket has been gradual in practice. It signed sponsorship deals with the ICC, hosted the IPL auction in 2024, partnered with the UAE’s ILT20, and signed a long-term agreement to stage the FairBreak Women’s T20 Challenge, though conflict in the Gulf region pushed the first edition of that tournament back.
