The much-awaited domestic T20 cricket tournament Emirates D20 has already started on December 6. This new tournament hosted by the UAE’s governing cricket body Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) is a follow-up to their previous successful Emirates D10 Tournament.
ECB is hosting the D20 tournament in partnership with Dream 11. The tournament is being powered by Sky247.net, an online sports portal. All the matches of the tournament are set to happen in the UAE with the main venue being Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
According to Khalid Al Zarooni, the Vice Chairman of the ECB, it was pleasing to announce this domestic D20 tournament after their successful hosting of the D10 cricket tournament before few months and the initiative taken by the cricket board is a vital step to develop and promote cricket in the UAE.
Emirates D20 Tournament is an integral step taken by the cricket board of the UAE for the further progress of cricket in the country. The event will also be an opportunity for young cricketers to showcase their talents. The tournament will be considered for selecting the national cricket team of the UAE in the future.
EMIRATES D20 TOURNAMENT FORMAT
There are altogether 6 cricket teams that compete with each other in this tournament. At first, there is a group stage where 6 teams compete against each other in a double round-robin format i.e. each team plays against every other team twice.
After the completion of the group stages, the top four cricket teams enter into the knock-out stages. There will be semi-final matches and the winners will face in the final match of the tournament to declare the overall winner of the tournament. So, there will be altogether 33 matches in Emirates D20 (20-over) Tournament.
TEAMS PARTICIPATING IN D20 TOURNAMENT
In this tournament, 6 cricket teams that represent UAE’s cricket councils have participated. These are the same cricket teams that competed in Emirates D10 Tournament. They are:
- ECB Blues
- Dubai Pulse Secure
- Team Abu Dhabi
- Sharjah Bukhatir XI
- Fujairah Pacific Ventures
- Ajman Alubond
EMIRATES D20 TOURNAMENT SQUADS
ECB Blues
Ali Shan Sharafu, Adhitya Shetty, Ansh Tandon, Ateeq ur Rehman, Aryan Lakra, Basil Hameed, Junaid Siddique, Fahad Nawaz, Mohammed Faraazuddin, Kartik Meiyappan, Riwan CP, Vriitya Aravind, Sanchit Sharma, Zahoor Khan and Waheed Ahmad.
Dubai Pulse Secure
Adnaan Khan, Bilal Cheema, Ali Nasser, Muhammad Usman, Nilansh Keswani, Muhammad Hassan, Omer Farooq, Rahul Bhatia, Punya Mehra, Ronak Panoly, Saqib Manshad, Rudra Madhav, Shahrukh Sheikh, Tahir Latif and Syed Haider Shah.
Team Abu Dhabi
Aaryan Madani, Jishnu Vattekkatt Balan, Ben Willgoss, Karthik Nagendran, Kai Smith, Matiullah Khan, Mudassir Hussain, Midhun Sudhakar Pattlikkadan, Mazhar Bashir, Navalesh Naidoo, Paresh Katkar, Osama Hasan Shah, Pasindu Wanniarachchi, Soorya Sathish, Sahil Sunil Hariani and Surjith Manohardas.
Sharjah Bukhatir XI
Arsalan Javed, Faisal Khan, Faisal Altaf, Badiuzzama Sayed, Hafeez Rahman, Fayyaz Ahmad, Kashif Daud, Krishan Paul, Khalid Shah, Mohammad Halan, Muhammad Boota, Mohammad Harris, Renjith Mani, Nathan Shibu
and Umair Ali.
Fujairah Pacific Ventures
Ahmed Raza, Aayan Afzal Khan, Hamdan Tahir, Lovepreet Singh, Hassan Khalid, Maroof Merchant, Luqman Hazrat, Muhammad Farooq, Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Umar Arshad, Sabir Rao, Muhammed Naeem, Sandy Sandeep, Waseem Muhammad and Usman Khan.
Ajman Alubond
Abdul Shakoor, Ali Khan, Adnan ul Mulk Nawab, Anand Kumar, Amjad Gul Khan, Ehtesham Siddiq, Asif Khan, Nasir Aziz, Hamad Arshad, Shareef Asadullah, Rishab Mukherjee, Rameez Shahzad, Waqas Ali, Sultan Ahmad, Zuhaib Zubair and Sheraj Piya.
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