By D Chakraborty
Doha: Qatar will host the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-16 Elite Cup for the first time from October 22-28.
Teams from five nations will participate in the event, which will be hosted in two venues on the outskirts of Doha — the Mesaied Industrial City (MIC) Ground and West End Park Stadium.
Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Iran, Kuwait and Qatar will participate in the tournament and games will be played over 40 overs per side. Usually, six nations take part in the Under-16 Elite Cup but UAE has pulled out sighting scheduling issues.
“The reason for giving this tournament to Qatar is that it has two proper grounds now. We decided it is now time for Qatar to host a major tournament. At this stage we in the process of testing the facilities and if all goes well, we want to award more high-profile tournaments. We want to see cricket grow in Qatar,” said ACC Technical Director Iqbal Sikander at a press conference at Holiday Villa here yesterday.
“We are thankful to the ACC for giving Qatar this opportunity,” said Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) General Secretary Manzoor Ahmad. “We would also like to thank the Qatar Olympic Association, especially Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani (Secretary General of the QOC), for its support.”
For the first time matches of the ACC Under-16 Elite Cup will be played under lights. “We wanted some matches to be played later in the day so that school students could attend and
office-goers could come in after work. I would like to thank West End Park Chairman Mana Ibrahim Al Mana and Abdul Aziz Obaid Ali, Manager (Business), Industrial Cities for their vital support,” the QCA General Secretary said.
QOC representative Eisa Ali Ghanem promised support for the tournament and thanked the ACC for giving Qatar the opportunity to host it.
The ACC Technical Director was also asked about his view on the Indian board’s (BCCI) reluctance in participating in multi-discipline sporting events, like the Asian Games, and whether this was hampering the growth of the sport outside South Asia.
“It is a big advantage if all the four Asian Test-playing nations — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — participate in all the tournaments. I don’t know the exact reasons for the BCCI not sending teams (to these tournaments) but we are in talks with them to see if they can send junior teams to these events,” Sikander said.
The QCA General Secretary said: “I had a talk with BCCI President N. Srinivasan regarding this earlier this year. He said India would try to send teams to these types of events.”
Teams for the ACC Under-16 Elite Cup will start arriving in Doha today. The opening ceremony of the event will be
held at West End Park Stadium from 9am on Wednesday — following which Qatar will take on Iran from 3pm.
THE PENINSULA
