UAE cricket poised to reap rewards of ILT20 popularity boom on Indian television

Zee TV executive believes franchise tournament could see country become destination for players from India

Former India international Robin Uthappa playing for Dubai Capitals against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders held at the 2023 ILT20. Photo: ILT20

The DP World International League T20 could prompt an influx of cricketers from India into the UAE looking to represent the national team.

That is the view of one of the TV executives who air the tournament in India, where they reported an audience of 220 million viewers for last season.

The third season of the UAE’s franchise T20 league begins on January 11, 2025, when defending champions MI Emirates play Dubai Capitals.

According to Ashish Sehgal, the chief growth officer for digital and broadcast revenue at Zee Entertainment Enterprise, ILT20 is the second most viewed in India after the IPL.

As such, he believes the country could become a destination for disaffected Indian cricketers looking to feature in the competition, and also represent the national team.

League rules stipulate that just two players in each starting XI have to be UAE-based. Those players do not need to be fully eligible for selection for the country as yet, but must agree that they intend to qualify through the ICC’s three-year residency criteria.

“[The ILT20 teams are] not belonging to a particular city or country, and because of that we believe we can build fandom in India,” Sehgal said.

“There, the cricket-loving population is in millions. It is also about helping the UAE build a cricketing culture.

“In turn that gives us the opportunity to give back to the society, in terms of having the Asian diaspora playing cricket here.

“There are so many players in India who don’t get an opportunity to play anywhere, and they have good talent. There are lakhs [100,000] and lakhs of players who might start getting an opportunity.”

The ILT20 is the only sports event aired on Zee’s 15 channels across India. Their 10-year media rights deal with the league was signed three years ago for a reported cost of $120 million.

“We are very careful about how we venture into any sport unless there is an opportunity of making profits in a short period of time,” Seghal said.

“The sport has to make sense because the rights are exorbitantly expensive, especially in cricket across the world, whether it be bilateral series, ICC tournaments, or the IPL itself. We thought we would enter small, but enter somewhere that made sense.

“Hopefully, in Season 3 onwards, we should start seeing a profit.”

Seghal insists a global viewership of 340 million across the world for ILT20 Season 2 stacks up well against the 546 million who watched the 67 matches of the last IPL season within India.

“Yes, the time spent on the matches is much less, and the fanfare is much less, but we are not competing with the IPL,” he said.

“Even if we get one tenth of the recognition of the IPL, I think we are on the right path. Even in the first five years, the IPL wasn’t that popular in our country itself. It takes some time to build any franchise league.”

The second season of the ILT20 saw significantly greater numbers of spectators watching the matches in person at the stadiums than in the opening season in 2023.

The organisers hope that the work done promoting the league among the domestic cricket community will help to continue that trend when the third season begins next month.

Seghal, though, insists the fact there are nine overseas players in each team means the ILT20 is also attractive to viewers based abroad.

“The UAE is a unique place from an Indian point of view,” Seghal said. “A large Asian population is in the UAE, and that was important for us. Secondly, the season time works perfectly for us.

“It would have been a good stepping stone for us to get back into sports, that is why we entered into it.

“While it is an international league, and in the future it will have more scope in the overall global arena, first things first we need to build it in India and the UAE.

“Though UAE is the home of the league, I think we can make it more popular in India as well, because of the uniqueness of the league. It is not belonging to a country.”