Saudi Arabia partners with India’s top cricket league for tourism promotion

Saudi Arabia partners with India’s top cricket league for tourism promotion
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Updated 15 February 2023

Saudi Arabia partners with India’s top cricket league for tourism promotion

Saudi Arabia partners with India’s top cricket league for tourism promotion
  • STA becomes official sponsor of Indian Premier League, world’s most-watched cricket tournament
  • Partnership follows other recent Saudi promotion programs in India, including tourism roadshows

NEW DELHI: The Saudi Tourism Authority has signed a partnership agreement with India’s most popular cricket league to tap into a strong sports fanbase in both countries and promote the Kingdom as a leading destination for Indian visitors.

In the past two years, India has emerged as Saudi Arabia’s key tourism source market and is expected to become the largest one by 2030, as the STA’s efforts are concentrated on building relations with Indian industry stakeholders.

The cricket partnership, inked between the authority and the Indian Premier League on Tuesday evening aims at increasing the Kingdom’s appeal in the south Asian nation. The STA will be an official sponsor of the IPL — a men’s Twenty20 franchise and the world’s most-watched cricket league.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with IPL, because we know how important cricket is to our visitors from South Asia,” Alhasan Al-Dabbagh, the STA’s chief for Asia Pacific, said in a statement.

“Through our partnership with the IPL, we aim to increase Saudi Arabia’s presence and appeal in the Indian and south Asian markets. We are excited to show prospective south Asian visitors why they should consider Saudi not only as their next holiday destination, but also as a viable sports destination as we play host to prominent sports and entertainment events such as Formula One, WWE, and the Spanish Super Cup.”

The partnership follows the STA’s other recent promotion programs in India, including a successful tourism roadshow and participation in a series of travel and trade events across the country earlier this month, including the One World Travel Market in Mumbai and the South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange — Asia’s leading platform for the tourism and hospitality industry.

The promotion strategy and the cricket partnership found immediate appeal in both the sports and tourism industry.

“The IPL partnership is a powerful channel to engage with its vast audience and support the Saudi Tourism Authority’s objective of creating brand awareness in India as well as among the fans from the entire cricketing world,” Rajeev Shukla, vice president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said during the announcement of the IPL deal.

“We hope that through this partnership, we inspire and grow the cricket fanbase in Saudi and in collaboration with STA, create exciting opportunities for them to engage with the game.”

Jay Shah, the board’s secretary, said he believed the partnership would help position Saudi Arabia as the leading tourism and sports destination.

“For us, it’s an exciting prospect that the Saudi Tourism Authority has immense faith in the power of the IPL to bring countries together.

“This partnership will create newer opportunities for cricket in Saudi and strengthen the sport in the region,” he added.

Cricket matches have been organized in Saudi Arabia since the 1960s, when the game was introduced by expatriates from Pakistan and India. As years passed, the sport became more structured and local clubs began to form.

The Kingdom became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council in 2003 and in 2016 was promoted to associate membership.

But the game’s real boom began only recently, with the establishment of the Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation in 2020, which has since lined up a series of programs to promote the sport at home and prepare national teams to compete with the world’s best in the future.

The idea to involve cricket in the country’s promotion was expected to boost Saudi Indian ties.

 

 

“It is great news for Saudi Arabia and India,” Elodie Azar, deputy general manager of the Saudi travel operator Kurban Tours, told Arab News.

“I feel that sport is a way to engage the young generation. This will help to promote Saudi as a leisure and tourism destination. This will also help to connect with many cricket fans around the world and to lead Saudi to be a destination for sports fans also not only tourism or business.”

In addition, it was expected to help forge people-to-people relations that underpinned economic and political partnerships.

“Building people-to-people ties is essential for India and Saudi Arabia,” Mohammed Soliman, strategic technologies director at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said.

“It is part of the broader trend of economic and political integration in West Asia.”

Muddassir Quamar, Middle East expert and fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, described the cricket partnership as a “defining moment” in Saudi Indian relations.

“There is a strong push in the Kingdom for bringing mega sporting and recreational events inside Saudi Arabia and the partnership can be one step toward that,” he told Arab News.

“The appetite for investments in sports in the Kingdom is enormous, and potential for partnership with Indian entities is immense.”


Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
Updated 59 min 43 sec ago

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
  • In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony

WASHINGTON: A federal judge has ruled that former US Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, a source familiar with the ruling said on Tuesday.
In a ruling that remains under seal, the judge also said that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6, the source said, adding that Pence can still appeal the ruling. The appeal option is being evaluated, the source said.
The source, confirming reports by CNN and NBC, said the judge’s decision compels Trump’s former vice president, and potential challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to appear before the federal grand jury but shields him from testifying about Jan. 6, 2021, itself.
Asked during an interview on Newsmax on Tuesday as to whether he would appeal the order, Pence said there was a limited amount he could say on the proceedings.
“I’m pleased that the court accepted our argument and recognized that the Constitution’s provision about speech and debate does apply to the vice president,” he said.
“But the way they sorted that out and the requirements of my testimony going forward are a subject of our review right now and I’ll have more to say about that in the days ahead.”
In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony.
Ahead of the Jan. 6 events, Trump had repeatedly lambasted Pence, publicly and privately, for refusing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win in the 2020 election, sources told Reuters at the time.
Representatives for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading the US Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, could not be immediately reached for comment.

 


Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Updated 29 March 2023

Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
  • Nadia Kahf took her oath with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an inherited from her grandmother when she was sworn in at the Passaic County Courthouse in New Jersey
  • A day later, another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge in Somerset County, also New Jersey

LONDON: Nadia Kahf, an attorney who was born in Syria, made history when she became the first Superior Court judge in the US who wears a hijab.

Kahf was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy last year, local media reported. Community leaders, including mayors, council members, school board members and leaders of the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, signed a letter in May calling on Senator Kristin Corrado to advance the nomination. More than 700 people also signed an online petition in support of her nomination.

Kahf, the third Muslim woman to serve as US Superior Court judge, took the oath during her swearing-in ceremony last week with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an she inherited from her grandmother.

“I am proud to represent the Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey in the US,” she said during the ceremony. “I want the younger generation to see that they can practice their religion without fear that they can be who they are. Diversity is our strength, it is not our weakness”

As a lawyer, Kahf specialized in family law and also handled immigration cases. Since 2003, she has been on the board of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization.

The day after Kahf’s swearing-in ceremony another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge, this time in Somerset County, also New Jersey.

 

 


Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Updated 28 March 2023

Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
  • Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain

LONDON: The billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway, according to media reports.

Mohsin and Zuber, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain, which had more than 37,000 outlets in over 100 countries in 2021.

The brothers co-own the Euro Garages firm, along with TDR Capital, which operates more than 6,600 petrol stations globally, and already has Subway outlets at 340 of its locations.

“EG Group have felt for a while that Subway treated them the same way as other franchise partners and their massive growth hadn’t been appreciated, so what better way to show who’s boss than owning them?” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

Another source told the newspaper it would “make good sense” for the brothers to complete the purchase.

The EG Group completed a £6.8 billion takeover of supermarket chain Asda in 2021 and is also KFC’s largest franchise owner in Europe.

It also owns the restaurant chain Leon and helped to launch the UK’s first drive-thru Indian street food outlet in the British town of Bolton.


Norway says repatriating sisters and children from Syria

Norway says repatriating sisters and children from Syria
Updated 28 March 2023

Norway says repatriating sisters and children from Syria

Norway says repatriating sisters and children from Syria
  • "The living conditions in the camps are extremely bad and dangerous,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said
  • The two sisters of Somali origin clandestinely left Norway for Syria in late 2013, aged 16 and 19, to join a popular uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad

OSLO: Norway said Tuesday it was repatriating from Syria two sisters who went there as teenagers as well as their three children, citing abysmal conditions in the displacement camp where they were housed.
“The living conditions in the camps are extremely bad and dangerous. These Norwegian children have been living for a long time in these camps where no children should have to live,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement.
They were handed over on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria.
The two sisters of Somali origin clandestinely left Norway for Syria in late 2013, aged 16 and 19, to join a popular uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad, as they would later explain in an email exchange.
Norwegian writer Asne Seierstad recounted their experiences in a book.
The sisters, now aged 29 and 25, are between them mothers to three daughters born from partnerships with Daesh group fighters, according to Norwegian paper Verdens Gang.
“The two women themselves asked for assistance to return with their children (and) know they will be arrested on arrival in Norway,” said Huitfeldt.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria said that “two women and three children from Daesh families” who were in the Roj camp were handed over to a Norwegian diplomat on Tuesday.
A statement said the children were aged six, seven and eight.
The situation of the sisters has been much discussed in Norway, as have similar cases involving youngsters from other European countries who made their way to Syria.
One such case was that of Shamima Begum, 23, who was stripped of her British citizenship after traveling to Syria as a teen to marry an Daesh fighter and who last month lost her legal battle to reverse the decision.
Huitfeldt noted that the United States as well as the UN and Kurdish authorities have been backing repatriation in such cases, citing instability in the region.
Norway in 2020 repatriated a woman from Syria with Daesh links as one of her children was seriously ill.


British business ministers announce working group on Islamic finance 

British business ministers announce working group on Islamic finance 
Updated 28 March 2023

British business ministers announce working group on Islamic finance 

British business ministers announce working group on Islamic finance 
  • The working group will help realize the Secretary of State’s priority of making the UK an undisputed investment, Islamic finance destination

LONDON: The British Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch, and Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade Lord Johnson announced on Monday the launch of new working group on Islamic Finance at a “Great British Iftar” at Lancaster House in London.

The working group will help realize the Secretary of State’s priority of making the UK an undisputed investment destination by ensuring the UK is a global hub for Islamic finance, a statement said. 

Johnson will lead a series of roundtables with the world’s leading Islamic banks to map out a path for the UK achieving its goal of becoming a global hotspot of Islamic finance.

The inaugural Great British Iftar included ambassadors from Morocco, Malaysia and several other Muslim majority countries.

Senior executives from investment firms, CEOs of major British businesses, and founders and entrepreneurs of exciting British firms were also in attendance, as were Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and government ministers.

Sheikh Hani Saad Mahmoud, Imam at the historic Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, travelled from Egypt to lead prayers at sunset.

Badenoch gave a speech at the Iftar celebrating the flourishing trade and investment relationship with the Muslim world.

She made clear the amazing contribution business of all sizes make to the UK economy and the support her department can provide to make them the engines of British exports into new markets.

Celebrity chef and founder of Spice Village, Suleman Raza, and award-winning music producer DJ Naughty Boy (Shahid Khan) curated a special “British Iftar Menu” for the evening, which served up a fusion of cuisines inspired by Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Pakistan and Malaysia.