All in the name of sport, something that Saudi women were not allowed to practice until a few years ago, indeed, sport's Arab spring is not so much a volte-face as a revolution.

The desert sheikhdom having ditched centuries of prejudice, misogyny and discrimination in order to woo the west on to believing that Saudi Arabia is now the Mecca for sporting extravaganzas and money is no object.

As we have seen over the past couple of years the Saudis are no longer strangers to sporting extravaganzas, staged numerous mega bucks world title fights, Grand Prix, tennis tournaments, bought Ronaldo, launched the LIV rebel golf tour, acquired English Premier League club Newcastle United and even offered to bankroll the basket case that is cash-strapped Yorkshire County Cricket club. 

You might say it’s just not cricket, but actually it is!

It is clear to me that the reasoning behind all this is that Saudi Arabia has its eyes on the prize - or rather, two prizes - the Olympic Games and the football World Cup.

The Saudi rulers know that they cannot host either while half the 36 million population have been denied any form of physical exercise.

Not anymore, of course we all know that empowering  women in sport is probably a cynical ploy to hang out the sportswashing on the line, a smokescreen for the devilish iniquities and social injustices of the past.

As is the proliferation of travel ads on the TV screens of Europe and the United States, depicting gender as the new Jamaica, with swaying palm trees, blue lagoons and endless sunshine. No bikinis on the beach - yet. 

But what has happened is that Saudi women are no longer compelled to wear a burqa or even a headscarf.

In fact so many of them are wearing tracksuits they are now something of a fashion trend. There is hardly a sport which does not encourage female participation.

It’s because 11 years ago then International Olympic Committee President, the late Jacques Rogge, waved a yellow card at the Saudis warning that if they did not select female athletes for 2012 they risked being ejected from the Games.

So a-token two marched with the men at the Opening Ceremony, four in Rio, and back to just a couple in Tokyo. Progress is slow in this respect. 

Do not be deluded by the fact that the Saudis will have 33 representatives in Paris next year - 22 of them will be male footballers with only two women among the rest.

But in Games to come after that you can expect to see many more women wearing the Saudi colours and it is highly likely that female fighters will feature prominently among them.

For boxing has become big in Saudi Arabia, particularly women’s boxing. Female fighters have been well-received on several promotions and I was struck by an excellent piece in Boxing News a few weeks ago by the esteemed journalist and broadcaster Steve Bunce.

Ostensibly he was in Saudi Arabia to cover the so-called scrap between Tyson Fury‘s light-heavyweight half-brother Tommy and the YouTuber Jake Paul.

Wisely he escaped from the media scrum to conduct his own investigation into whether we had been hoodwinked into believing that boxing really was burgeoning among women in Saudi.

What he discovered was simply astonishing. Not only are the gyms full of girls - some as young as ten - skipping, sparring and punching the heavy bags but at one amateur tournament just outside the capital Riyadh there were nine female bouts on the bill, with female referees, judges and officials. One female fighter is a Saudi princess.

However there is a man in charge of it all and he happens to be English. Kevin Smith is a much travelled top club coach who spent 20 years with the renowned Golden Gloves club in Liverpool.

Now he is tasked with preparing Saudi men and women for international tournaments, of which there will be plenty.