Oman Cricket (OC) have announced the start of the 2020-2021 domestic season for both men’s, women’s and junior categories from October 16th onwards, after the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth announced on September 24th, that all bodies including unions, committees, clubs, national teams can resume sports activities.
The domestic season will commence with T20 tournaments in all categories, while spectators will not be allowed at the grounds at the moment as a precautionary step towards COVID-19 pandemic. 57 teams across all premier and lower divisions in the men’s category will participate in the T20 league, while the women’s league will see 6 teams compete for the title. Junior cricket league will see a total of 31 teams compete during the new season.
“Focus on human safety, strict enforcement of discipline and increased use of technology will be the highlights of the new season which is expected to help us prepare well for our international assignments’’, said Duleep Mendis, Chief Development Officer, was quoted on the Oman Cricket website.
“All the games will be held under the strict safety guidelines including social distancing and proper sanitizing of dressing rooms, sitting area, washrooms and dining rooms before, during and after the play. Teams will be advised to follow the health protocols before the games start’’, added Mendis.
The domestic premier league for 2019-2020 season in both T20 and 50-overs formats saw the final games played in the month of March 2020, before the global pandemic lockdowns began. Assarain CC and Passage to India CC were the top 2 clubs in both the formats, with Assarain on top of the points table in the 50-overs competition, while Passage to India leading the T20 competition. Jatinder Singh (Muscat CC), Sanuth Ebrahim (Assarain) and Shoaib Khan (Muscat CC) were the three players with over 500+ runs in the whole season combined (T20 and 50-overs), while Samay Srivastava (Muscat CC) and Bilal Khan (Passage to India) were the top bowlers for the season.
Arm Alpha, IT Works, Muscat CT, Al Turki, AER and Renaissance are the teams that will compete for the T20 title, after Passage to India (PTI) and Assarain opted out of participation, and most of the players from these two clubs joining the clubs who will take part in the new season. IT Works will be fielding a strong batting line-up comprising of Oman national squad members Zeeshan Maqsood, Khawar Ali, Adnan Ilyas, Muhammed Nadeem and Khurram Khan.
Al Turki will be another fancied team that includes the likes of Twinkle Bhandari, Mehran Khan, Sindo Michael and Gustav Burger in their line-up, while Naseem Khushi, Amir Kaleem, Kashyap Prajapati and Waseem Ali will be some of the players to watch out for in Muscat CT team.
The T20 tournament will be followed by domestic 50-overs competition, which will be crucial for player looking to get into the senior squad ahead of CWC League 2 matches/tournaments in 2021. Full schedule for the 2020-2021 domestic season including all the divisions can be found on this link.
