Last Friday was a momentous occasion in UAE’s domestic cricket. More than 5,000 cricket enthusiasts turned up to watch the final of the Kerala Premier League. While the number may not sound too big, it is special because never before have so many people turned up for a domestic tournament final, who cheered both teams until the winners lifted the trophy well past midnight.
This tournament has set many milestones through its last three editions. It has shown that planning with an objective of offering something new to the game can help anyone achieve unprecedented success. This tournament was the first to fix a price tag for domestic cricketers — making team owners pay for their skills. That way they sought to earn respect for the cricketers in this country for the first time.
This tournament also honoured the winners and runners-up with the biggest ever prize money in the history of domestic cricket. They thus managed to reward the teams that give their best and lift the standard of UAE cricket as well!
The third edition attracted the largest turnout, much bigger than what was seen for the Pakistan-Australia and Pakistan-New Zealand Test series. This is indeed a huge achievement because to have a larger crowd than the Test matches in which top class cricketers such as a Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Younis Khan and Brendon McCullum competed speaks volumes of the popularity of the appeal for this tournament and it’s format.
This tournament’s profile is now growing and attracting international Test stars as well. All this points out to the fact that UAE is a fertile land for cricket and shrewd organisers can do wonders here. The tournament also honoured the spectators by offering free raffles that fetched them gold and even a brand-new car!
Private tournament organisers are now lining up to stage high profile domestic tournaments with unprecedented cash prizes. Danube, another corporate investing heavily in cricket, will set a new landmark when they give away the biggest prize money for their oncoming two-day format tournament. Cricket councils in the UAE should consider themselves fortunate to have organisers willing to invest money into domestic cricket, and they should be provided all support. These initiatives and willingness to invest funds and time need to be lauded.
In a nutshell, if KPL is a success story, it is because they respected the domestic cricketers who now even outshine international stars. Teams play spectacular cricket due to the big prize money and spectators turn up to watch the action because even they are respected. So, be it an organisation or a group of like-minded people, if they respect cricket they are bound to reap huge success in the UAE.
