DUBAI // The Pakistan Super League (PSL) could stage matches in Pakistan as early as next season.
That is the view of Najam Sethi, the chairman of the PSL, who said the organisers had even been considering the possibility playing some of the opening campaign back in their homeland until very recently.
The new Twenty20 league begins in the UAE tomorrow, with all 24 matches being played in Dubai and Sharjah.
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When leading international players were first approached about playing in the competition, they were asked to signal if they would be willing to play in Pakistan. Due to security concerns, few agreed to the idea.
However, Sethi said he had been given assurances that “foolproof security” would be provided were matches to be played in Pakistan.
“We tried this year,” Sethi said, as the teams trained at the ICC Academy yesterday. “We offered more money to foreign players, but the players associations didn’t agree.
“Things are improving in Pakistan. We have a firm grip over terrorism now. The governor and chief minister of Karachi have said we can have a match there any time, and they will guarantee foolproof security.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) reached an agreement with the Emirates Cricket Board last year for the competition to be staged here in its entirety.
However, the league’s Karachi-based franchise, the Kings, recently proposed playing a pool match in their home city.
Their enthusiasm for that idea was founded on the success of the launch of the team last month, when more than 30,000 people attended the national stadium.
“The reason we did that event was to prove to PCB and the world that Karachi is a safe place,” said Salman Iqbal, the Karachi owner. “With 33,000 people there, and an immense amount of security, after that I think the president of Pakistan took notice. They had a conversation with a governor of Sind and PCB to see if we could have some of this season’s PSL matches in Pakistan.”
Iqbal suggested the fact the league is being played abroad in the UAE could inhibit its prospects, both financially and as a spectacle.
Sethi predicts the Dubai International Stadium will be “at least 70 per cent full” when Islamabad United play Quetta Gladiators on opening night.
He has also said matches would be guaranteed to be sell-outs were they played back in their home cities. “My sense is that next year we will definitely have a match or two in Pakistan, and a year or two later we will probably move all of it back to Pakistan,” Sethi said.
“If the government of Pakistan say we are ready ... of course we will move it back to Pakistan.
“Hopefully, we can guarantee security and pave the way for international cricket to come back to Pakistan. This will help create an opening for a huge revival for domestic and international cricket, inside and outside Pakistan.”
Shane Watson, the Australia batsman who is playing for Islamabad in the PSL, hopes cricket can return to Pakistan soon.
“I had a really good time in 2005 when we played there on an Australia A tour,” Watson said.
“In the end, security is the most important thing. If places around the world are declared to be very safe, I love playing cricket wherever it is around the world.
“Fingers crossed, for everyone’s sake in Pakistan, not just the cricketers, that security continues to get better there because Pakistan haven’t had the chance to have hometown advantage for a long time now.”
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- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
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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.”