UAE to host Desert T20 tournament in January
Written by: SportsCafe Desk
Eight of the Associate nations will participate in the Desert T20 tournament to be held between January 14 to 20 in UAE, the Emirates Cricket Board announced on Saturday. The board’s president Zayed Abbas has said that it will provide these nations an opportunity to play more competitive cricket.
Host nation UAE will participate alongside Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, and Scotland in this seven-day tourney. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format, followed by a knockout stage. The first five days of the event will be hosted at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi before it moves to Dubai for the final two days.
Initially, Papua New Guinea were scheduled to participate in the tournament. However, they later declined the invitation and were replaced by Namibia, who are yet to gain T20I status. The Emirates Cricket Board president Zayed Abbas is expecting “the quality of cricket to be very strong” with the teams evenly matched in ICC’s T20 rankings.
"The aim of the tournament is to provide an opportunity for our teams to play more competitive Men's T20 cricket. Each of the participating countries are very close in ICC T20I rankings, so we expect the quality of cricket to be very strong," Zayed Abbas said, reported ESPNcricinfo.
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