• A Covid-19 coronavirus patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, along the roadside in Ghaziabad in India. AFP
    A Covid-19 coronavirus patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, along the roadside in Ghaziabad in India. AFP
  • Silvia Mosca, center, welcomes doctor Elisa Riccitelli and nurse Nurse Luigi Lauri as they get ready before administrating a dose of the Pfizer vaccine to her husband at their home in Rome, Tuesday. AP Photo
    Silvia Mosca, center, welcomes doctor Elisa Riccitelli and nurse Nurse Luigi Lauri as they get ready before administrating a dose of the Pfizer vaccine to her husband at their home in Rome, Tuesday. AP Photo
  • A person recovers after a reaction following vaccination against Covid-19 at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Reuters
    A person recovers after a reaction following vaccination against Covid-19 at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Reuters
  • A medical officer, left, gives a form to villagers before they get their second dose of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. AP Photo
    A medical officer, left, gives a form to villagers before they get their second dose of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines, outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. AP Photo
  • A man looks at his smartphone near a banner reading "Mandatory mask wearing" at a park in Goyang, South Korea. AP Photo
    A man looks at his smartphone near a banner reading "Mandatory mask wearing" at a park in Goyang, South Korea. AP Photo
  • People head to their village in a crowded bus after Nepal declared restrictions effective from Thursday as the major second wave of the Covid-19 emerges in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters
    People head to their village in a crowded bus after Nepal declared restrictions effective from Thursday as the major second wave of the Covid-19 emerges in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters
  • A worker sells sweets to customers in Beirut, Lebanon. Reuters
    A worker sells sweets to customers in Beirut, Lebanon. Reuters
  • Men play instruments to entertain passersby on a street in San Jose, Costa Rica. EPA
    Men play instruments to entertain passersby on a street in San Jose, Costa Rica. EPA
  • A woman walks past closed shops in a department store in Tokyo during a coronavirus state of emergency covering Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo regions. AFP
    A woman walks past closed shops in a department store in Tokyo during a coronavirus state of emergency covering Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo regions. AFP
  • University students queue to receive the China National Biotec Group Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at a university in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. AFP
    University students queue to receive the China National Biotec Group Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at a university in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. AFP

Cricket

India looks to UAE as backup to host T20 World Cup in wake of Covid crisis - report

Record number of cases and deaths in country cast shadow over tournament

Ajit Vijaykumar

April 30, 2021

  • English
  • Arabic

The Indian cricket board has confirmed it is exploring the possibility of this year's T20 World Cup moving to the UAE if the coronavirus crisis in the country continues to worsen.

India is scheduled to host this year's T20 showpiece event in October but the country has been struggled against a record number of Covid cases and deaths over the past week.

The country reported 379,257 new cases and 3,645 fatalities on Thursday, the highest number of deaths in a single day in India since the start of the pandemic.

The alarming situation has forced many foreign players to leave the ongoing Indian Premier League, with question marks over the feasibility of the league during the second wave.

The UK and Australia are among numerous countries to effectively ban travel from India, and there are growing concerns over the feasibility of staging the T20 World Cup later in the year.

Dhiraj Malhotra, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) general manager for game development, hopes the tournament remains in India.

"I've just been named one of the tournament directors, so I'm doing everything we can to make sure it happens," Malhotra told BBC's Stumped podcast.

"We will be doing normal scenario, and worst case scenario, so with all that we're talking to the ICC at the moment."

Malhotra said the UAE, which hosted the IPL last year, will be the back-up venue for the tournament this year.

"It would be the UAE. We're hoping again that it would be done by the BCCI. So, we'll take the tournament there, but it'll still be done by the BCCI," he said.

Malhotra's comments come days after the BCCI moved to assure players taking part in the IPL that they will remain safe under the tournament's bio security measures and urged to play on for "humanity".

An email from Hemang Amin, interim chief operating officer at the BCCI, has been issued to squad members of the eight franchises in a bid to instil confidence in the tournament following several high-profile departures.

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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.”

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