Two years ago, the climactic stages of the Indian Premier League were completely overshadowed by the Twitter fiasco that ended up costing Lalit Modi, then the chairman and commissioner of the league, his job.
This year, after five weeks when cricket made headlines for all the right reasons, two scandals have taken the IPL back to the front pages.
First, there was the sting operation a television channel carried out, which featured five Indian players either promising a spot-fix or negotiating contracts that they were not supposed to.
The hullabaloo surrounding that had barely died down when Luke Pomersbach, a peripheral presence with Royal Challengers Bangalore this season, was accused of assaulting a woman and her fiance after a game in Delhi.
He has since been granted bail, but the response from his franchise has further damaged the IPL's reputation.
When the story broke, Sidhartha Mallya, the son of the owner and a team director, had tweeted: "everyone loves a good scandal. Why can't ppl just enjoy the cricket ... "
It was deliciously ironic that someone associated with a team synonymous with the league's party culture was asking fans to focus on cricket for a change.
Had that been all he had said, there would have been no damage done. Instead, he had questioned the character of the woman that claimed to have been assaulted. Now the woman in question is threatening a defamation suit.
A couple of days earlier, Mallya had talked up the tournament, which still had seven teams fighting for the four play-off places.
"This has been a great ipl," he tweeted. "games have been thrilling & the fans great as usual … shame another stupid scandal has to taint a super tournament."
He was referring to the sting operation and he wasn't far wrong.
From a supporter's perspective, this has been a terrific competition, with third and fourth place in the table decided on the final two days of the league phase.
It may have missed the top Australian players for three weeks, and may be lacking the best English performers now, but those in the fray, Indians and overseas recruits, have combined to ensure a really competitive league.
This fifth season has also seen the tournament step out from under the shadow of giants.
The first year was really all about Shane Warne and his exploits with the unfancied Rajasthan Royals.
The following year, the Deccan Chargers scraped into the play-offs before Adam Gilchrist's devastating hitting led them to the final and a narrow victory against Bangalore.
In 2010, with Modi's fall from grace dominating headlines, Sachin Tendulkar's role in guiding the Mumbai Indians to the top of the table was overlooked.
When they went on to lose the final - Tendulkar did not help the cause with some mystifying tactical calls - his run-scoring feats were quickly forgotten.
Last year's story was the Chennai Super Kings, and MS Dhoni adding to the World Cup crown that he had won just weeks earlier.
Chennai's experienced core, kept together despite an auction at the end of the third year, came good when it mattered and they became the first team to retain the title.
They have not looked like champions this year. Delhi have topped the table, courtesy explosive batting and high-quality fast bowling, but five losses in 16 games is testament to how tight the competition has been.
Pitches that have provided the gamut from high-scoring thriller to attritional scrap have helped as well.
Sadly, an intriguing final week looks destined to play second fiddle to events off the field.
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
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Infobox
Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the next stage of qualifying, in Malaysia in August
Results
UAE beat Iran by 10 wickets
Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by eight wickets
Oman beat Bahrain by nine wickets
Qatar beat Maldives by 106 runs
Monday fixtures
UAE v Kuwait, Iran v Saudi Arabia, Oman v Qatar, Maldives v Bahrain
Jebel Ali card
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
The National selections
1.45pm: Cosmic Glow
2.15pm: Karaginsky
2.45pm: Welcome Surprise
3.15pm: Taamol
3.45pm: Rayig
4.15pm: Chiefdom
4.45pm: California Jumbo
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.”
