Icons of Cricket 2016 pits cricket legends in a golf tournament

While England and Pakistan have been competing in the UAE this week, some of cricket’s glitterati of the past have arrived to promote a golf tournament. Shane Warne, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, pictured, and others will be up against each other in the Icons of Cricket 2016, a golf match between Australia and the Rest of the World in October 2016.

Star attractions

Iconique, the tournament organisers, clearly have an exhaustive contacts book. The first Icons Cup, in April this year, had a roll call including Darren Clarke, Fred Couples, Oscar De La Hoya and Luis Figo. Now they have opted to stage a Ryder Cup-style match between some of the most famous names in cricket.

Sledging subtly

The sort of conversations that go on between English and Australian cricketers on the field of play are hardly suited to the genteel climes of the golf fairways. Yet the chat between the two Icons teams will be immediately available to all. Players will be miked up for the television broadcast of the competition. “There’s going to be a lot of sledging between the two teams,” said Thomas Brookes, founder of the Icons series.

New, old ‘Rory McIlroy’

Michael Vaughan, the former Ashes-winning England captain who is the vice-captain of the Rest of the World side, said: “When we know we can’t get that much longer on a cricket field, we all take up the game of golf. We all think we are Rory McIlroy or Jason Day ... In a year’s time we will find out. I can’t wait for it to start.”

Word of warning

Shane Warne played in the Icons Cup earlier this year. Despite winning two matches against De La Hoya, he survived without being stung by any haymakers. He probably opted not to chirp the former multi-weight boxing champion, but that will not be the case when the cricketers take to the fairways. “We all know each other really well,” Warne said. “Straight away you can start the sledging on the first tee.”

Teams

Australia: Shane Warne, Mark Taylor, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappell, Damien Martyn, Dean Jones, Mike Hussey, Merv Hughes, Ian Healy, Greg Blewett, Allan Border; Rest of the World: Michael Vaughan, Viv Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Brian Lara, Brendon McCullum, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Stephen Fleming, Ian Botham.

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The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.

It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.

The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.

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Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove

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- Number of children under five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401m in 2100

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- Nigeria will become the world’s second most populous country with 791m by 2100, behind India

- China will fall dramatically from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2024 to 732 million by 2100

- an average of 2.1 children per woman is required to sustain population growth

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1888

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

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Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

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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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Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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