Zayed Stadium to host Asia Cup

The Zayed Cricket Stadium, on which the final works are being carried out, will play host to nine matches in the Under-15 Asia Cup cricket tournament between December 7-22, including one semifinal and the final.

Though the stadium itself is yet to be handed over by the contractors, three pitches have been prepared for the Asia Cup and five preliminary round matches starting with the opening day will be staged here.

In the opening matches on December 7, Qatar take on Malaysia in Abu Dhabi, while Oman play Thailand in Sharjah and the Dubai Cricket Council grounds 1 and 2 will play host to the UAE vs Hong Kong, and Nepal vs Singapore matches respectively.

The tournament is being organised by the Emirates Cricket Board under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council.

Including the four Test-playing countries, the tournament has attracted 14 teams and for the first time teams in the Asia and Middle East will come together.

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been seeded directly into the Super League stage. The 10 non-Test playing national teams are Oman, Maldives, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore and hosts UAE.

Prior to the Super League, the remaining 10 teams, divided into two groups, will play the preliminary league on a round-robin basis.

The top two countries will join the Test-playing four countries in the Super League in another round-robin format.

The top two from each of these Super League groups will play a criss-cross semifinals and the final is set for December 22 in Abu Dhabi.

The matches will be of one-day duration with each team playing 40 overs per innings. A total of 35 matches will be played over the 16-day long tourney.

The grouping for preliminary round:
Group A: UAE, Oman, Maldives, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Group B: Malaysia, Nepal, Kuwait, Singapore and Qatar.