Grand slam of cricket: Secret plan hatched for new Saudi-backed T20 league

A global Twenty20 league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia has been devised by an influential Australian cricket figure in what could be one of the most significant developments in the game in decades.

The proposed eight-team league is modelled on tennis and its grand slams, with teams to assemble and play matches in four different locations during the year.

A Saudi-backed global T20 league would be funded by the Kingdom’s SRJ Sports Investments, headed by former A-Leagues chief Danny Townsend. Credit: Stephen Kiprillis

The league’s main financier would be Saudi Arabia’s SRJ Sports Investments, the sports arm of the oil-rich Gulf state’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, and discussions about it are under way with the game’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council.

The concept has been secretly in the works for a year and is the brainchild of Australian Neil Maxwell, the former NSW and Victoria all-rounder who manages Australian captain Pat Cummins and is a former board member of the Australian Cricketers’ Association and Cricket NSW.

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