Dubai: At a time when coloured clothing and white balls are commonplace in all domestic One-day and Twenty20 tournaments, the Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) has decided to back tournaments that will be played in traditional white and using a red ball.
The first edition of the Danube Quadrangular One Day series commencing on Wednesday at the ICC Aacdemy, will see players don the traditional white and playing a red ball. It will be after nearly a decade that a One-day tournament will not be played in coloured clothing here.
The DCC, under whose auspices this tournament is held, is also backing the Mavericks Friendly Cricket tournament, which is also being played in traditional attire.
Speaking to Gulf News, Shiva Pagarani of the DCC said: “We have come out to support even cricket played over weekend. We found out that Umer Sultan of Maverick Cricket club has been staging friendly’s, amicable leagues getting together cricketers who play cricket in their spare time, contributing the cost among themselves. The council has decided that even this level of cricket [will] be recorded, officiated and the performances will be highlighted.”
The Mavericks tournament on green top-turf wickets with a red ball is played between four teams — the Mavericks, the Dubai Mammoths, the Dubai Stallions and Strategy & Strategy.
Anis Sajan, managing director of Danube, who envisaged the quadrangular tournament, said: “I am a strong supporter of traditional cricket and that is why we even organised a three-day tournament recently stressing on a longer version of the game. We wanted the One-day cricketers too to experience tradition.”
The first game will be played between Al Fara’a and Danube Lions and the participating teams are Al Fara’a, Alubond Tigers, Danube Lions and GMW Royal. Each team plays three league games with the top two on points progressing to the finals. The event is being supported by Delhi Darbar and Cha Cha Chai.