IN life one ought to choose their passion wisely such that it will take care of them while they concentrate on business.
The United Arab Emirates-based businessman, Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk, the proprietor of a largely successful international conglomerate, Mulk International Group is a testament to this.
Although he says it (his passion) is not giving him much, just a few million dollars compared to the billion turnover he gets from his business empire, he can feed off the proceeds from his passion in cricket.
Mulk, runs the T10 cricket leagues dotted around the world through his sports vehicle company, T Ten Global Sports. He is also the chairman and founder of his international group which is currently constructing the state of the art town, Cyber City in Mt Hampden.
His group has invested US$500 million in a real estate project to build The Zim Cyber City project on a 46 000 square metre land.
“I think the actual business is building homes and supplying homes. Our expertise is to build model homes and claddings. We supply everything and we have plans all over the world,” Mulk told The Standard Sport.
“We are the world's largest manufacturer of plans. That's our core business. Cricket is a passion and the T10 cricket league as you know is a very successful venture of ours. "Really there's no balance (between his cricket passion and business). "I give quite a bit to cricket and I think a lot more than I can afford to the business because passion has got no limit. I will give you an example; the business does US$1. 8billion turnover, but T10 does a few million dollars.”
The other T10 Leagues being run by Mulk include the Abu Dhabi T10 in the United Arab Emirates, the Lanka 10 in Sri Lanka and the USA Master 10.
Zim Cyber City Zim Afro T10 first edition described as successful in every respect has given Mulk renewed optimism as they prepare for the succeeding editions.
“It’s fast-becoming the largest cricketing league in the world because we reached 500 million viewership last year. We are the single largest organisation that does more than one league in the world, we have six leagues,” he added.
“Let's put it this way; we got in with an investment plan of 10 years. It's very normal for us to invest in the first two or three years. "The first year when you invest you probably expect maybe 30 to 40 percent back. We had better than that.”
Recently, Mulk was named fourth most influential Arabian inspiring leader in a list of 100 illustrious Middle East powerhouses compiled by the Arabian Business.
Mulk, whose philanthropic work includes free medical clinics, libraries, assisting the differently abled children and an orphanage marriage programme said he is humbled to be named among Arab’s best leaders.
“I think it’s always satisfactory when you are being recognised for your work. It’s been a journey of four decades of hard work basically and to be honest with you, the list of 100 has got such big heavyweights. I was surprised to be ranked number four. It is quite satisfactory,” he said.
“It has come more on the group efforts as well because I think I’m not the one who should be taking credit for that. It’s the team that works for me all over the world. "Whether my team in Europe, India or Africa or in Turkey all the operations we have, they made it happen. I give that recognition to them.”