Al Ain: Al Ain will soon become a busy cricket centre, with more than six pitches being created for staging tournaments.

Officials began by installing Al Ain’s first clay pitch and adding floodlights around the lush green ground at the Sportsplex. The initiative has been taken up by cricket enthusiasts Mohammad Ali, Director of Everest Sports, and Hiren Kansara, Assistant Vice President for Finance and Accounts at Al Faraa.

Under the aegis of the Al Ain Cricket Council, they have launched the inaugural Al Faraa Ramadan Twenty20 tournament on this new wicket. The tournament has now reached the semi-final stage, with the final scheduled for August 7.

Ali told Gulf News: “We are keen to give a boost to cricket in Al Ain and this will be the start of many tournaments. We will be also staging a Super Sixes tournament in November.

“We have received huge support from Mohammad Khalifa Dharmaki, chairman and CEO, and Khader Ayyad, the chief administrator of Al Ain Sportsplex, to promote the game in their premises.”

Al Ain cricket bosses are also keen on building links with English county side Durham.

“Durham visited this venue last December and they were very impressed. We had only cement tracks then,” Ali said. “We are launching our coaching plans for youngsters now and we have already got bowling machines and the latest coaching tools.”

The Ramadan tournament began with an exciting clash that saw GMS Star score an exciting two-run win over NBH after Joseph Manoharan, Al Faraa’s Senior Manager for Administration and Human Resources, inaugurated the pitch. “We are proud to start this new chapter in Al Ain cricket and we hope it goes a long way,” Kansara said.

Friends Cricket Club and GM Cricket Club have advanced to the semi-finals. In the quarter-finals, Friends beat Emistate by four wickets and GMS recorded a six-wicket win over X Eleven.

Emistate posted 131 for 7 through Sajid’s 39 off 34 balls including two fours, while Shoukath contributed an unbeaten 21 off 18 balls. In reply, Friends won with seven balls and four wickets to spare as man of the match Ijaz cracked 56 off 40 balls with five boundaries and two sixes.

In the other quarter-final, Qasim and Faisal took two wickets each to restrict X Eleven to 110. GM’s in-form batsman A. Rahman hit an unbeaten 40 from 23 balls to help his team win in 16 overs.