'T10 one day will be in Olympics because it's a rational sense'

Andre Russell in action during the T10 league

The brand new edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 league will see a host of cricketing icons take part in the sport's shortest format. The big names include England's explosive batters Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson, and Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan among many others. The tournament gets underway from November 21 and the final is scheduled on December 2. The upcoming season, which is the sixth time the tournament is being played in Abu Dhabi, will see an addition of two new franchises Bolts Ajman and UP Nawabs, taking the total number of teams participating to 10.

Ahead of the tournament, Moneycontrol got in touch with Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman of T10 Sports Management, and Matt Boucher, CEO of Abu Dhabi Cricket, to know about the innovations and the growth in popularity of T10 cricket worldwide. Here are the excerpts from the interview...

Question: Can you talk about Abu Dhabi weather and climate conditions? And cricket services, sports services, require a lot of water usage. So if you can talk briefly about what kind of techniques are being used from a sustainability point of view, especially in a land like Abu Dhabi and UAE where sports is growing at tremendous pace?

Matt Boucher: Yes, it's a very fast moving society and obviously sports at the center of that side. In this particular window climates absolutely perfect at the end of November beginning of December. They know the facilities will be world class. With regards to the second question, our whole facility is run on treated water. So it's essentially using secondhand water, and it comes from residential and office Buildings. And then we use some natural water on the clay wickets and the main stadium only. So, we've got over 350, 000 square meters of grass that is only using treated water. So our footprint's pretty minimal when it comes to water usage and we'll continue to grow that and improve that in the next couple of years.

Question: Abu Dhabi T10 league has associated with some top brands as sponsors. So what kind of sponsors we can see for the current season?

Shaji Ul Mulk: We are focusing on a dual approach, one is event-wise sponsorship management, and one global, where major brands like Dream 11, Fancode have just signed with us for a global deal. So, all the leagues they'll be covering. But otherwise we have regular brands from India, like Vimal.

Question: We have seen sports growing over the past decade in the region, so how much has Abu Dhabi T10 has helped in developing?

Matt Boucher: Absolutely sports has been on Abu Dhabi's radar since the early 2000s, when the Abu Dhabi tourism authority was created. And from 2009 with the onset of the Abu Dhabi Formula One was a real game changer. And then throughout the following years, world-class cycling has been introduced in the calendar. And we've had triathlons now for over 10 years, the Golf Championship is now into its 17th year. So I think we are building a sports product and a destination that that everybody can be proud of. And we're really proud from our perspective that Abu Dhabi T10 is becoming a real talking point within that global destination sports calendar.

Question: Is there a vision about putting T10 cricket at the global state in multi-sporting events like Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, or the Olympics?

Shaji Ul Mulk: I think the decision to put the format of cricket, whether in Olympics is purely by ICC and also the interest of the the countries. So for the way we see it eventually we do hope that T10 one day will be in Olympics because it's a rational sense that the last countries can play the format. And I think it's a journey in my opinion that bilateral should be happening and more and more countries can playing bilateral in T10, and it becomes a recognized format.