Cricket: Qatar's Gulf Cup proposal 'well received' at ICC meet in Dubai

Date

1/19/2016 11:09:11 PM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) Secretary-General Manzoor Ahmed (third left) is seen with ICC Development Officer Iqbal SIkander (fifth left) and neighbouring officials at the International Cricket Council (ICC) headquarters in Dubai recently.

DOHA: Qatar’s bid to initiate a Gulf Cup of cricket among the GCC countries was ‘well received’ as the game’s governing body - International Cricket Council (ICC) welcomed the idea and ensured its ‘full support for the regional tournament’.

In a bid to promote the game in the region the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) floated the idea to launch Gulf Cup which also received positive response from the neighbouring cricket bodies.

The QCA last week conveyed the proposal to game’s global governing body in the meeting involving Associates and Affiliate Members in Dubai.

“The ICC has welcomed the idea and wants the event to take place” QCA Secretary-General Manzoor Ahmed who attended the meeting said yesterday.

“The ICC has ensured its full support and has asked us to engage all the regional cricketing bodies. They (ICC) has no issues if all the Gulf cricketing bodies will agree to start the Gulf Cup” he said.

The QCA official was optimistic in finalising the schedule and venue for the proposed event as every country has to propose venue to play the tournament. “We got positive response earlier from nearly all the Gulf Countries and now the QCA will resume discussion with them to finalise the venue and schedule. The ICC has also asked us to do the same”Ahmad said.

“We are hoping the proposal to get materialise soon” said Ahmed before adding that ICC has given QCA a go-ahead to arrange series with anyneighbour country and any Associate Member ‘anytime’.

Meanwhile QCA President MA Shahid announced that Qatar will field a ‘strong’ team in an U-19 Regional tournament scheduled to be held in September.

The venue of the 10-team competition is yet to be decided he said.

“We will select best squad for the tournament. It’s an important tournament as the winner will get a berth in the Asia Cup in 2017 and the winner of Asia Cup will play ICC World Cup U-19 tournament” Shahid said.

“The QCA is planning to hold trial matches and conduct training sessions as we have enough time for the tournament” he added.

The QCA Secretary-General added that Qatar’s national team was ready to take on Saudi Arabia at the Friendly Cup this weekend in Doha as this is the first step after the decision in ICC meeting.

“We have selected the best squad following a trial match last week” he said.

“The players are in good shape and eying a good show against the visitors” said Ahmed. The Saudi side will arrive in Doha tomorrow and play a Twenty20 the same day.

The two sides will meet in a one-day game on January 22 followed by the second and last Twenty20 match on January 23.

The two Twenty20 games will start at 6:30pm while the one-day which will be played on Friday will start at 2pm.

All the matches will be played at Asian Town Cricket Stadium.

The QCA has announced that entry at the stadium during the Friendly Cup games will be free for fans.

The Peninsula

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