Music loving Geoffrey Boycott is a big fan of Katie Perry

Geoffrey Boycott, the outspoken cricket personality, has made some shocking statements in his time, but none more so than this week.

As the England team commenced its 2,000th Test match, against India at Lord's, Boycott declared: "I like Katy Perry singing Firework."

While fan profiling remains an inexact science, one might not automatically consider a cantankerous, septuagenarian Yorkshireman as a typical consumer of California bubblegum pop.

Nor, indeed, would you see him as a typical consumer of fireworks: "All that brass going up in smoke, and for what? A quick whizz and a bang. No thank you very much."

But Boycott is, if nothing else, a pragmatist. I suspect he has studied the field and found Perry to be "the best of a bad bunch". I am now hoping that we can hear this analysis in full. It will probably go something like this:

Shakira: This lass wants to tell us the hips don't lie. She obviously does not know the first thing about batting stance. Do you think I would have scored 22 Test centuries without using my hip positioning to bamboozle the bowler? Not ruddy likely, dearie.

Taylor Swift: A cracking voice but she fell apart at the 2009 VMAs, when Kanye West stormed the stage and said Beyonce should have won. Can you imagine if I had done that in 1970, when Brian Close had a few choice words to say about me being made captain of Yorkshire? Mental toughness, you see.

Rihanna: No, love, I won't stand under your umbrella, if it's all the same with you. I'll go into the pavilion for tea, and I suggest you do the same. It's bloody pouring down, woman.

Adele: OK, flower, so you got your heart broken by some chap. Are you going to spend the rest of your life moping around, or do what I did when Yorkshire dropped me as captain, and the next season I averaged 61.7 at the crease? My advice: Try to be someone like me.

sports@thenational.ae

Sheer grandeur

The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.

A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.

Race card

1.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 50,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

2pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 84,000 (D) 1,400m

2.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,200m

3pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 100,000 (D) 1.950m

3.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 76,000 (D) 1,800m

4pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,600m

4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 68,000 (D) 1,000m

The five pillars of Islam

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2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat

Brief scoreline:

Liverpool 5

Keita 1', Mane 23', 66', Salah 45' 1, 83'

Huddersfield 0

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”