Oman Cricket and Dhofar Insurance ink three-year sports-centric insurance policy

MUSCAT: Sports injuries to international cricketers in today’s highly competitive game is often considered part and parcel of their lives. Oman Cricket (OC), the national cricket governing body of the Sultanate, has been mindful of the fact and faced many situations when the national team cricketers suffered injuries on international tours while performing national duties.

In an effort to mitigate the concerns of the national team cricketers and ensure their well being, OC has teamed up with Dhofar Insurance Company to offer its cricketers a first-of-its-kind sports-centric health insurance policy for a period of three years.
The sports-centric insurance policy was one of the major highlights of the partnership agreement inked between Oman Cricket and Dhofar Insurance Company recently at the OC headquarters in Al Amerat recently.

The agreement has wider benefits for the national cricket body, its staff and its assets and Duleep Mendis, chief development officer of Oman Cricket, said: “We welcome Dhofar Insurance Company into our family and we hope this agreement will help us on all fronts.”

Paul Sheridan, OC vice-president, said: “This is a mutually beneficial agreement and we hope that we could continue the relationship for a long time.”

Sunil Kohli, CEO of Dhofar Insurance, said: “Cricket is a very popular game and we are proud of Oman national team’s successes including winning the inaugural Gulf T20 Cup recently. We are honoured to be associated with the national team and this is our contribution to the national team. We will be there to support the team, be it in a small or big way and promise full support to them. Oman Cricket will be safe with us.”

Alkesh Joshi, OC treasurer, said: “Among the major highlights of the partnership agreement is the one-of-its-kind health insurance policy for its national team players. This is a first for any national sports associations in the country and we are proud to have taken the pioneering step.

“This policy ensures that the national team players do not have to worry, God forbid, in case of any injury happening as they will be provided the best healthcare and flown to any part of the world for the best of treatment. From air travel to getting the treatment from the best experts, they would be taken care of by Oman Cricket.”
“The policy is a matter of relief for the players, who can now focus on what they do the best: performance on the field.”

Though Oman Cricket had announced that it had sealed a sports-centric insurance policy for its national team cricketers with a leading insurance company in June earlier this year, a formal agreement with Dhofar Insurance Company was signed only recently.