MoneyGram Cricket Ke Badshah reaches out to cricket in labor camps

Action during one of the games on the opening day. (AN photos)

Players from the labor camps make a happy picture on the first day of the tourney.

RIYADH: MoneyGram has launched a new cricketing concept in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through its MoneyGram Cricket Ke Badshah tournament. MoneyGram will take the game into the labor camps across the kingdom with the launch of the tournament in Riyadh on Friday.
MoneyGram will work with the labor camps of BACS, Al Seif and Saudi Oger on this CSR initiative to help develop cricket in the central region. This will allow the sub-continent workers to participate in the structured tournament for the first time and showcase their skills within the camps. The initiative is part of MoneyGram’s commitment to develop grassroots cricket in Saudi Arabia. The winners of each camp will play against each other to see who will be the champion team of the respective camps in Riyadh.
For the first time in the Kingdom, MoneyGram will also host the final in the BACS camp with their ambassador, former Indian cricket star Irfan Pathan, who will coach the teams and deliver the cup to the winning team at the grand finals on June 3. Pathan is a former World Cup player and was a part of the MoneyGram ICC World Twenty20 Trophy Tour in the Kingdom in February. Irfan said, “After seeing the passion for cricket within the camps on my last visit, I am looking forward to being at the finals to see the best players from each of the Camps playing to be Champions of Riyadh. What MoneyGram is doing for grassroots cricket in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is fantastic as this will help develop them as players and help promote the game further across the Kingdom.”
MoneyGram Cricket Ke Badshah tournament matches will be 20 overs-per-side (Twenty20) and running qualifiers from May 6 through June 1. The grand finals will be on June 3, where the winners of each camp will play off to be Champions of Riyadh. This exciting tournament will compliment MoneyGram’s association with the International Cricket Council (ICC) where MoneyGram has extended its sponsorship with the ICC for an additional eight years in an agreement that will see the global provider of money transfer and payment services sponsor all tournaments until the end of 2023. MoneyGram is the only ICC sponsor to activate cricket in Saudi Arabia and support the Labor Camps.
“By launching MoneyGram Cricket Ke Badshah in the labor camps we are able take the game of cricket to the Sub-Continent workers who are passionate about the game,” said Andrei Afanasyev, MoneyGram’s director of marketing. “This initiative is giving back to the workers a structured tournament that they can either play in or watch over the next five weeks. It also allows MoneyGram to leverage its commercial partnership with the International Cricket Council in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. MoneyGram is honored to be able to bring a legend of the game of cricket such as Irfan Pathan to the Kingdom to help coach the players, talk about his experiences and hand out the prestigious trophy. “
“There are hundreds of thousands of MoneyGram’s customers from Sub-continent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not only will they participate or watch the cricket tournament, but we will arrange for them to be able to send their money home to their families seamlessly through MoneyGram’s network in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There will also be opportunities to win various prizes courtesy of MoneyGram during the five-week tournament, ” said Maher Haddad, MoneyGram’s senior regional director of Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.