The inaugural edition of the Qatar Champions League (QCL) will begin on March 13 with eight teams in the fray, Qatar Cricket, Rugby and Hockey Federation (QCRHF) president Yousef Jeham al-Kuwari said at a press conference yesterday.
“I’m very happy to launch the first Qatar Cricket League in Doha today. In the first year, the top eight teams of Qatar are contesting and I’m sure this event will grow into a big tournament in future,” al-Kuwari said.
“We need such events as we want to give more opportunities to local players for the development and growth of the game. This event will surely lift the game to next level. I’d like to congratulate the organisers and my QCRHF colleagues,” he added.
The T20 league is being jointly organised by QCRHF and Warriors Cricket Academy and offers QR50,000 as prize-money to the winners. All the matches will be played at the Asian Town Cricket Stadium.
Warriors Club is one of the Premier Division teams affiliated to the QCRHF. They have won the Cape Town Six-A-Side Festival title last year and own a team in the Mangalore Premier Cricket League in India.
Apart from Warriors Club, the other contesting teams are Tusker Club, Feroz Youngsters, United Challengers, Galfar Al Misnad, Infinity Seashore and Qatari Diar.
Some international players from India and Sri Lanka are likely to visit Qatar during the tournament, Kushal Kumar, one of the directors of the Warriors Cricket Academy board, said.
“This is just a start of the event and we’ll try to develop it into a much bigger event in the coming years,” he said.
The runners-up will take home QR25,000, while there are attractive cash prizes for other individual award winners.