The Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation (SACF) has entered into an MOU with JSW Sports, the announcement was made on Tuesday. The collaboration will witness JSW Group’s sports vertical to join as a consultant, to develop cricket in Saudi Arabia in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
Apart from working with the SACF in the agreement, JSW Sports will work closely with its stakeholders, organization, infrastructure, and programmes, to prepare a high-performance plan with a long-term concept of increasing the popularity of cricket in the country. The conglomerate will also focus on areas such as talent identification, cricket facilities, events calendar and grass-roots development.
JSW Sports is the sports arm of the $13 billion, globally renowned conglomerate, JSW Group. The entity is committed to some popular sports, which includes, cricket, football, kabaddi, and athletics. The group also focuses on nurturing sporting talent through their privately funded organization, Inspire Institute of Sport.
“We are very excited at this opportunity to partner with the Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation to help them grow the sport of cricket in the country. Saudi Arabia comprises eight million people from cricket playing nations who call the Kingdom their home, and we look at it as an advantageous demographic dividend. We’re very excited for the opportunity to create the blueprint to grow the sport that we love, in Saudi Arabia. At JSW Sports, we pay great attention to nurturing and growing talent and sport at the grassroots level and this is very much in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision, which makes this association a perfect fit,” said the Director of JSW Sport Parth Jindal.
SACF is the official governing body of cricket in Saudi Arabia. The International Cricket Council (ICC) gave the associate membership to the cricket playing nation in 2016 after being an affiliate member since 2003.
While talking about the partnership, Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation’s chairman HRH Prince Saud bin Mishal, said, “SACF is delighted to work closely with the vastly experienced and successful sports organization, JSW Sports, at this exciting phase in the transformation of the federation. We are proud to be associated with a leading international high-performance entity to benefit
the growth of cricket in Saudi Arabia.”