The headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) last Thursday morning looked no different, still airy, glistening and exuding the constant recycling newness and nowhereness of hotels and airports. They smelt no different. Within its walls, they did not sound much different either. Except, of course, that they could no longer be the same.
On Thursday morning, the ICC announced in a press release that Shashank Manohar had been elected unopposed and unanimously in a secret ballot as the new ICC president.
Somebody with a sense of humour – or a simpler sense of vindication or hyperbole – might have been tempted towards an alternative release, a mock obituary: “In affectionate remembrance of the Big Three, which died in Dubai on May 12, 2016, deeply lamented by a small circle of three sorrowing men and no friends and acquaintances. RIP.”
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Manohar is in, N Srinivasan is out, nursing his wounds, maybe biding his time. Wally Edwards has wandered off into the sunset, pleased, you suspect, to be walking away from the mess he helped create. Giles Clarke ... well he is around but one senses, or wishes, a little deflated of the hot air that has propelled his ICC days.
Thursday, of course, was just one day. If such a potentially significant development was announced in such mundane, time-honoured fashion, then perhaps it is in recognition that neither is Manohar’s election the start of the dismantling of the Big Three’s world, nor is it the end.
Earlier in the week Manohar had descended from one position as the unacknowledged head of the cricket world as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI so that he could ascend to another, as the acknowledged head of the cricket world at the ICC.
Already that is one of the critical corrections of the previous regime, that the ICC head must not be at the same time an official of a member board so avoiding any potential conflict of interest. An Indian is in charge of the ICC but, in theory at least, the BCCI is not.
To Manohar’s credit, he has pushed quickly on that amendment. It was only last November, after all, when he arrived in Dubai for the first time as the ICC head who replaced Srinivasan and immediately realised the tangled interests in play.
On the sidelines, as the BCCI head, he was also meeting the Pakistan cricket chairman Shaharyar Khan to try to break the logjam preventing a bilateral series between India and Pakistan. As a BCCI official, he did not want the series played in the UAE. But as the ICC head, he had to bear the best interests of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in mind as well, interests that were counter to those of the BCCI.
“Today was the first day I went to ICC office,” he said at the time, when asked about this conflict. “So give me at least some time.”
Much else needs to be undone, not least, the financial revenue distribution system put in place in 2014. The ICC is making a point of the fact that it considers Manohar to be its “first elected independent chairman”. That independence will be fully tested in Manohar’s attempts to, if not entirely undo then partially scale back the revenue model that further stretches the inequality between the wealthiest and poorest boards.
The change to that amendment, it has been sensed among some members, will not come so easy. None of the three boards of India, England and Australia will want to give up a bigger share of revenue.
Manohar has spoken of the possibility of cutting the BCCI’s share by six per cent but it is not the figure itself that is important. The biggest problem with that revenue model was always its opacity. Nobody knew how the figures had been calculated; indeed, it is clear now they were arrived at arbitrarily, with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia (CA) negotiating the BCCI down from an amount they figured they wanted for playing in ICC events.
The BCCI argument that cricket’s economy should be thankful to the Indian market needs, as priority, to be backed up by the kind of economic research that this sport has rarely made public. It has become an accepted wisdom that 70-80 per cent of cricket’s money is generated in India but there is no public research that backs that up, or even explains how such a figure might be measured.
And if such work exists, then it probably does not venture into the terrain that Ehsan Mani, a former ICC head, has done, by pointing out that the BCCI has nothing to do with the size of India’s economy, so to demand to be paid more because of it is, philosophically, problematic.
That, and even greater reform and change, is still some time away. Manohar is clear in that he wants to oversee some of it. That is good to know though in parting, cricket will do well to keep in mind that during Manohar’s first regime at the BCCI between 2008 and 2011, the adversarial equation between the BCCI and the world actually grew.
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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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Newcastle United 1
Joselu (11')
Tottenham Hotspur 2
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
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