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These are still early days to talk about cricket in Qatar, but it seems things are going to change in the near future. |
The country successfully hosted a three-nation women’s cricket tournament involving the national teams of Pakistan, South Africa and Ireland in January this year. And now, in two days time, Qatar will host its first international tournament, albeit a junior one.
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-16 Elite Cup begins on October 22 and runs till October 28. Being held under the aegis of the ACC and to be organized by Qatar Cricket Association (QCA), the week-long 40-overs-a-side event will be contested by the under-16 teams of five countries—Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Iran and Kuwait, besides hosts Qatar.
The games will be played at two venues—the Mesaied Industrial City Ground and the West End Park Stadium.
“This will be the first international tournament to be organised by Qatar Cricket Association, so we are quite excited. We hope a successful staging of this event will serve as a launch-pad for bigger events in the future,” said Manzoor Ahmad, general secretary, QCA.
“It was originally supposed to be a six-nation tournament, but because of UAE’s pullout, we have been left with five teams. There will be two games played each day, the first one beginning at 9 am and the second game, a day-night affair, scheduled to start at 3 in the afternoon. The entry is free, so we appeal to cricket lovers in Qatar to come and enjoy the matches which will also motivate the players,” Ahmad added.
He also thanked Mana Ibrahim al-Mana, chairman of West End Park, and Abdul Aziz Obaid Ali, manager, Industrial Cities (Business), for allowing the matches to be played at their venues.
Former Pakistan spinner Iqbal Sikander, who is currently the ACC’s cricket development officer, said the main aim behind bringing the event to Qatar was to help the game grow. “This is like a test event. The ACC wants cricket to grow in this region. Qatar now has two good grounds, and if the crowd response we got during the three-nation women’s event is any indication, cricket has the potential to grow here,” Sikander, who also has the dual responsibility of being technical director and match referee for the tournament, said.
He said the next in line could be the ACC Trophy, or the ICC’s Under-19 qualifying tournament. “We wanted to start with a small tournament, to check and test the facilities, the ground condition etc. We want to get bigger tournaments to Qatar. But for that, we need better facilities. Both the grounds here are good, but we need more practice patches, we want the local teams to play on turf pitches, not on astro-turf or concrete. This is the beginning of a process, and our vision for the region is long-term,” Sikander, who was part of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning squad, added.
The opening match of the tournament, a day-night affair to be played at the West End Park Stadium, will pit hosts Qatar against Iran. “This is the first time ever that an ACC U-16 tournament would be played under lights. The timing would be suitable for school children to come and watch the games after their school hours,” informed Gul Khan Jadoon, the tournament director.
The Qatar team will be led by Hamad Mirza, with Abdul Rehman and Aminul Islam being the coach and manager respectively. The team consists of as many as seven Qatari players, at least five of whom would be part of the playing eleven. “The aim is to help cricket grow, and that’s one reason why the ACC has made it mandatory to have minimum six local players in each team, out of which five have to be in the playing XI. This will be a good experience for Qatari players and we hope to see more and more players from Qatar embracing the game in the future,” said Sikander.
The teams will be landing in Qatar today, and would be practicing at the West End Park Stadium tomorrow. The organisers have also scheduled an opening ceremony on Wednesday at the West End Park before the opener between Qatar and Iran.