Dubai Cricket Council honours best performers in Division A
Wings win best team award, Zadran is honoured as best bowler
Dubai: The Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) honoured the winners of their first Division A tournament, which was held over 35 days, at a colourful function held at the Holiday Inn on Sunday night.
Wings Group Cricket Club received the Blenheim Champions Trophy while Ibsons Cricket Club collected the runners-up trophy. Given that the DCC has suffered from the absence of cricket grounds, it is a huge achievement to stage a Division A tournament.
Afghanistan's promising pacer Dawlat Zadran, who destroyed many top teams' batting line-up with his deadly pace, won the best bowler of the tournament award while Phoenix Medicines' Rohan Mustafa bagged the best batsman award.
Ibsons' Saqib Ali was adjudged the player of the tournament for his spectacular performance in piling up 395 runs and bagging 13 wickets.
Full-day, 50-over matches were staged despite the soaring costs of private grounds. "Our council has been struggling for some time now and our activities had even come to a standstill due to lack of grounds. We have been able to start our tournaments purely due to the huge backing from our supporters, especially at a time when hiring a ground is costly.
"This tournament would not have been possible but for the sponsorship support from Blenheim Energy," said Mohammad Lokhandwala, secretary of the DCC.
The Division A tournament turned out to be a huge success, with players from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India competing for different teams which lifted the overall standard of the competition. Following the intense competition produced by the tournament at the 7evens ground, Priya Ramamoorthy, of Blenheim, said: "We are proud to be the sponsor of such a high class tournament and we will support the event in the coming years too."
It is Blenheim's Wings Group which fielded top Afghanistan players that emerged champions under the captaincy of Neeraj Ramamoorthy.
During the function, the DCC, in memory of umpire Prem Mishra, who passed away recently, presented the umpire of the year award to Ranjith Joshi, who has been officiating in the UAE for 35 years.
Mishra's two daughters and son-in-law have dedicated this trophy and a cash award of Dh1,000 for the umpiring fraternity.
