Umm Al Quwain: Umm Al Quwain (UAQ) Cricket Club, which was dealt with a huge blow after they lost 15 of their grounds from staging matches recently, has decided to continue staging their tournaments in Umm Al Quwain only.
The club is now left with only one ground, though they have been organising nearly 1,000 matches every year through their 18 tournaments.
Speaking to Gulf News, Mushtaq Ahmad, secretary of the UAQ Cricket Club said: “Though we did get invites to stage our tournaments outside Umm Al Quwain in Ajman and in Hamriya, we decided to continue hosting matches in Umm Al Quwain only as we got our identity due to this emirates. We have promoted the name of Umm Al Quwain and made it one of the busiest cricketing centres in the UAE and so we decided to wait till the government to provide more grounds. We are hopeful that Shaikh Ahmad Bin Khalid Al Mualla, chairman of Department of Planning and Survey in Umm Al Quwain may adhere to our request.”
Every weekend, close to 48 cricket teams travel from all over the UAE to play in tournaments here. The organisers recently staged the finals of the Kashmir T20 League-Season in the only floodlit ground at the venue. Brother Gas team emerged the champions defeating Commercial Bank International PSC by 52 runs. Adnan Khan and Tanvir Ahmed scored half centuries for Brother Gas and helped the team post 213 for 5 in 20 overs. Chasing the score Commercial Bank could muster only 161 in 19.4 overs.
This tournament was held under the aegis of Ajman Cricket Council and Domestic Cricket Development Committee under the supervision of Emirates Cricket Board.
“We are going ahead with our tournaments and all the tournaments will be held under the banner of Umm Al Quwain. We are announcing the popular Ramadan tournament, which sees participation by a lot of teams from all over the UAE. This time, we will permit only 16 teams to take part in the UAQ Ramadan T20 Bash and hence entry will depend on first-come-first serve basis. We will stage two matches under floodlight every day,” added Mushtaq.
Brief scores:
Final: Brothers Gas CC bt Commercial Bank International PSC by 52 runs. Brothers Gas CC: 213 for 5 in 20 overs (Bahadur Khan 44, Adnan Khan 76, Tanvir Ahmed 59, Arsalan Javaid 23 n.o; Asif Sayed 3 for 36). Commercial Bank International: 161 in 19.4 overs (Imran Shaikh 25, P. Mithun 21, Rashid Maqsood 29, Shereen Khan 2 for 29, Arsalan Javaid 2 for 16, Adnan Khan 2 for 27). Man of the Match: Adnan Khan.
