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Dubai: Sponsors are lining up to back the expanded second edition of the T10 League which will be held from November 21 to December 2 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The new title sponsors of the event will be Ghalia Group, a UAE-based conglomerate that has ventured into oil and gas, aviation, information technology and financial technology sectors.
Speaking to Gulf News, Shaji ul Mulk, the chairman of the T10 league said: “The UAE’s private sector organisations are providing strong support to the T10 League. Ghalia Group will be our new title sponsors. They are a Sharjah-based major crude oil trader who have also recently invested in the Indian aviation industry by acquiring two regional airlines, Air Deccan and Air Odisha and is setting up a US$2 billion AeroCity in Andhra Pradesh. We also have ENBD, MyDubai and BMW backing us.”
Shaji then explained why sponsors will benefit hugely from the second edition as it also being telecast live through Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD in India, Ten Sports in Pakistan, Ten Cricket in Middle East and North Africa and also be streamed on SonyLIV app. “More eye balls means more commercial value to the teams. The fact that we have tripled the size of the league from four days to 12 days now we expect to reach three times the audience or even more. The league will be more popular than last year and we are looking at over 100 million viewers this year. That is where we hope to drive from this experience better ground rights, better sponsorship deals and broadcast deals. The commercials should be very interesting from next year.”
Shaji feels that Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and also Sharjah Cricket Stadium have contributed immensely for the success of the event.
“The ECB has stood by T10 league all the way. They are our licensee and our profit partners. The entire management has stood solidly behind us as they believe in the product and believe in the people running it. Every step on our way particularly when there were those negative campaign going on, ECB stood very strongly for us. With two UAE cricketers per team to play in coming edition it makes it 16 UAE cricketers playing in an international league and that is our contribution to the development of the game in the UAE.”
Shaji revealed that T10 league will be held from two venues next year after lauding Sharjah Cricket Stadium’s contribution. “Sharjah is important as it always draws crowd. The proximity of the stadium, being inside the city, is a big advantage and there are lot of labour camps around that draws the crowd. Hence we are repeating our tournament there. We wanted Sharjah as well as Dubai International Stadium to host the event this year but because of the international series in Dubai during the same time, we could not get the stadium. Next year we will stage the tournament in Sharjah and at the Dubai International Stadium.”
