Oman Cricket announces GCC Women’s T20i Cup

Muscat: Oman Cricket is delighted to announce that the GCC Women’s T20i Championship Cup will commence on March 20, 2022. All the fixtures will be held at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground.

The teams involved will be Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. A round robin format will be employed, with all the matches contributing towards ICC WT20i ranking points.

Speaking on the announcement, Vaishali Jesrani, captain of the Oman Women’s Team said, “On behalf of Oman Cricket, it’s an absolute privilege to welcome the women’s cricket teams from 6 countries –Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain”. What a moment for these young cricketers to represent the game at the highest level. A special round of applause for Bahrain & Saudi Arabia, who are playing for the very first time.

“We Welcome you all to the GCC Women’s T20i Championship 2022 in Oman. Let’s have a great tournament – Cheers!” This is the fourth edition of the tournament – one that was conceived in Oman, which played host to its very first iteration in 2014. The nations competing have, as the name suggests traditionally been GCC Nations only, other than the 2016 version where Malaysia, Uganda and Kenya took part.

The event was held every year from 2014 till 2016, and has now been rebooted after a 6-year hiatus. Of the sides competing, Kuwait and UAE have recent international exposure, owing to their participation in the ICC WT20 Asia Qualifiers, held at Dubai in November 2021.

 This marks the Oman National Women’s team’s second outing as a group since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the last one coming in January of this year against the Wanstead Cricket Club (UK) at the Oman Cricket Academy.

The matches will be live-streamed for the first time – another milestone marking the rapid rise of Women’s Cricket in the Sultanate, and more broadly, the Gulf.

Oman’s fixtures in the upcoming tournament are as follows: 20th March 2022 Oman v Bahrain 9 am (Turf 2), 21st March 2022 Oman v Saudi Arabia 1:30 pm (Turf 2), 22nd March 2022 Oman v UAE 6:00 pm (Turf 2), 24th March 2022 Oman v Kuwait 9:30 am (Turf 1), 26th March 2022 Oman v Qatar 7 pm (Turf 1).