The sports sector contributes Dh4 billion ($1.08bn) a year to the economy of Dubai, which hosts a number of national and international events and attracts visitors from around the world; Currently, there are more than 20,000 people employed in Dubai’s sports sector; leading to $670 million of economic impact with an economic footprint of more than $1.7 billion a year.

In today’s high level of sports achievements, more attention is paid to resource management in sport and business positions in sports organizations. Better sports results achieved in the UAE in recent times in various sports, to a large extent changed the perception and character of sports services in the nation and set new requirements for venturing into technological advancements on an integral basis. Today we will talk about a certain entrepreneur who has brought about dynamic changes in the sporting sector of the UAE – ASLAM GURUKKAL.

A member of the Prestigious Gurukkal family, entrepreneur ASLAM GURUKKAL is a renowned Sports Entrepreneur, Business Strategist and a Marketing expert from India. He is the Co-Founder, Managing Director and CEO of Arba Sports Services LLC, a sports services company that manages sporting events, products and athletes.

ASLAM GURUKKAL oversees the companies various functions, including operations, finance, marketing, sales, resource management, legal, compliance and technology, while balancing the needs of athletes, investors and other stakeholders.

The Arba Sports Services LLC is a boutique sports services company focusing on the development and commercial application of sport within the UAE. Their expertise lies in executing events, leveraging marketing, brand sponsorships, sports development and team-building initiatives. It promotes sports and games with utmost love, courtesy, and dedication. Besides, it offers flawless and extensive services to the sports industry and aims at setting the standard for high-quality and pristine service in the sporting sector.

The organization is packed with a team of professionals who loves sports and wishes to take sports to the nook and corner of the world. ARBA Sports focusses on cricket and works on developing the sport in the nation.  Managing Director and CEO ASLAM GURUKKAL is the brain behind UAE Friendship Cup, a prestigious cricket tournament consisting of renowned legendary players and celebrities from around the world in order to spread love, unity, and brotherhood between people and countries.

The Friendship Cup UAE cricket tournament was conducted in one of the iconic and biggest cricket stadiums in the world, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The Sharjah Cricket Stadium has a lot of memories and history to tell the cricket fans the world over. The tournament offers complete entertainment, fun, and nail-biting matches to the cricket fans in the United Arab Emirates.

Hosting the Friendship Cup UAE in Sharjah cricket stadium was a huge benefit because it is an arena where many international matches were played, including IPL (Indian Premier League), 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, plenty of international ODI matches, international T20 cricket matches, and international test cricket matches. The Friendship Cup UAE was a unique experience for veteran cricketers, cricket fans, young cricketers and Bollywood stars.

The Friendship Cup UAE consisted of four teams – The Bollywood Kings, India Legends, Pakistan Legends and World Legends 11. The teams were packed with world-famous international cricketers, budding cricketers, and renowned Bollywood actors. The Arba Sports Services LLC offered the license and pass to the fans with the hope of enriching many young cricket players, support cricket players, and also to offer spotless entertainment to cricket fans.

As a sports entrepreneur, ASLAM GURUKKAL’s business model involves understanding his clients’ strategic objectives, his consumers, and his company’s brand image to help achieve its commercial goals through sports marketing.

He is the head of Management Operations. ASLAM GURUKKAL allies with the team coaches and trainers to ensure talents have enough training resources to begin their journey to success. In addition, he takes care of aspects such as organizing game schedules, food and service staff hiring, and arrangement of essentials like uniforms, training, and travel are duties the managers carry out.

He implements appropriate solutions to eliminate destructive conflicts and even oversee sports facilities and run required maintenance. Beyond the primary organizations, ASLAM GURUKKAL manages all aspects of athletic programs in colleges and high schools of UAE too.

For every sports season, there’s a budget to take account of all operating costs, salaries of every athlete, coach, and staff member, and potential revenues for the sports organization. ASLAM GURUKKAL oversees all business and financial operations.

He goes beyond negotiation, advertisements, underwritings, or other activities to sell products and market his brand. He is the face of the organization and the point of engagement with the media and local fans through interviews and press conferences.

ASLAM GURUKKAL also functions as a marketing professional and serves as public relations personnel and facilitates a close bond between his company’s services, sports team and the fans. Most importantly, he works towards bringing in corporate sponsors and endorsements.

An inspirational leader with first – rate interpersonal skills and the ability and passion to develop the vision of his organization, he is able to push performance improvement whilst at the same time delivering growth. Since he is a prolific influencer, he creates enlightening and inspirational content for social media too. He has garnered more than 215K followers over his Instagram handle in a quick succession of time and his content is loved by his audience.

He traditionally builds his audience’s trust by forging more personalised relationships with them and cultivates this intimate relationship through immersive and engaging posts, all the while inspiring his followers and acting as a link between them and his business.