Oman cricket’s World Cup dreams

Dad Mohammed Al Balushi still remembers the time he met Sachin Tendulkar. It was early nineties; Wi-Fi, WhatsApp, Facebook, and so many of the other things we now take for granted had not yet been invented, and Tendulkar was just another gangly youngster from the suburbs of Mumbai who showed plenty of promise and harboured the hopes of one day playing for India.
Now a board member of Oman Cricket Association, Dad Mohammed was part of an Omani cricket team that had travelled to India to provide some much-needed exposure to home-grown cricketers in Oman, who at that time didn’t have the purpose-built facilities that they have at their disposal today.
“Tendulkar is an amazing player, a great player,” recalled Dad Mohammed. “When we planned to go to India, this was a private tour featuring seven Omanis along with some other players, and they would meet senior staff from the Indian cricket team. We had a game against the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and Tendulkar was playing for that team. Our boys played well, but unfortunately, we lost that game. We played six games, won three and lost three.”
But memories aside, Dad Mohammed has one very special souvenir from that match he is unlikely to forget for a long, long time.
“One of my first man of the match awards was on that tour and it came from Tendulkar, before he had properly started his career and had become a big player for the Indian team,” he admitted.
While cricket’s big nations are busy announcing their squads for the upcoming 2019 Cricket World Cup and enter the stage of final preparations for the tournament, spurred on by his memories of that tour and his passion and love for the game, Dad Mohammed Al Balushi and the Oman Cricket Association are firmly fixed on ensuring that the boys in red represent their country on the world’s stage one day.
“Omanis have always had talent when it has come to cricket actually: we have 170 or 180 boys playing cricket – Omani boys – and they have always had a fondness for the game,” explained Dad Mohammed. “Now we are starting to reach the new generation, who are also coming. The Oman Cricket Association is doing its best to go to the schools and teach Omani children how to play cricket. We actually have six local teams consisting of Omani players. We finance everything for them, and we will continue to train, support and coach them.”
In addition, Madhu Jesrani, the secretary of the OCA, said that the recently-constructed sports facilities for the senior national team and its youth teams are just the latest in a number of developments the OCA has planned.
Their new purpose-built turf pitches in Amerat, as well as the adjoining training centre, and that means Oman can now host official ICC cricket matches and tournaments. One of the latest tournaments was an associate level event that saw Oman earn promotion to Division Two, in a competition that saw the national cricket teams of Denmark, Uganda, Singapore, Kenya and the United States come to Oman to play that tournament.
Jesrani has only fond memories of that tournament, and said that the setting up of this facility was what really drove up interest in the gentleman’s game.
“We remember the last time we had an official game on the weekend, between the United States and Oman, and we were playing to a fully-packed ground,” Jesrani explained.
“Some people actually had to go back home. If you see the crowd over there, the cars being parked, it was amazing to see this sort of crowd turning out in Oman. Our preparation begins a couple of months before any tournament, and that is why we have built our own complex, because if we don’t stand on our own feet, then we are just wasting our time, and we planned this to provide greater opportunities for the citizens and residents of Oman.
“There are many players who train with us and who play cricket at both semi-professional and professional level. We are training them so that they can become better and reach higher levels of performance,” he added.
“If some of the other up-and-coming countries have gone far and achieved things, then there is no reason Oman cannot do it as well.”
He added: “I think it is fair to say that we are at the level of some of these associate level teams, because we have beaten them in One Day Internationals and at Twenty20 level as well, so Oman is progressing in the region, and every time we progress, it gives us confidence.”
Another long-term plan of the OCA is to promote not just cricket at grass-root level but also generate interest in other areas of the game to encourage more and more people to take up roles and jobs in cricket, and make the game appeal to those who want to pursue a career in sport, in collaboration with the International Cricket Council.
Jesrani explained: “We recently had an umpire training course in Oman run by the International Cricket Council, and every month, we have some or the other event being organised with the ICC where we take part. We recently had a GCC cup with the rest of the five countries here in Oman. That was an amazing experience.”
While Oman does have aspirations to play at the ICC Cricket World Cup, some of Oman’s most famous wins have come on the world’s stage. In 2016, in a bid to qualify for the Twenty20 World Cup, a series of qualifying matches were held in Dharamshala, India, to decide which associate nations would take part in the final tournament. One of their fondest wins to date came against Ireland, who had previously played at the ICC Cricket World Cup, when the boys from Oman beat them with two balls to spare to pull off a famous, unprecedented victory.
“We beat Afghanistan in that tournament, we beat Scotland in a warm-up game, but lost to them in the tournament. We beat the Netherlands convincingly and we also beat Ireland,” recalled Madhu Jesrani. “The first game was a very convincing win and we were actually surprised. For the second game we knew Ireland was going to give us a tough time, so we needed to be prepared for that. The match as you know went to the very end of the last over and the second-last ball. It was a thrilling win, and the morale began to grow actually after that game.”
However, long before then, Oman’s cricket association had ensured that athletes adhered to a strict diet and fitness regimen, a foundation that ensures every athlete is able to play consistently, and without which, it would simply be impossible to successfully play any sport, a fact that Oman’s cricket players know, and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices.
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“Only if you are fit can you play the game, so our boys know the importance of being fit to play the game,” Jesrani said. “Our team is now used to playing in qualifiers, in friendly games and in tournaments, and the core of this team has been with us for a long time. The average age of this team is actually about 30, so we know that we need to keep them in good shape, and we actually hired a trainer from South Africa who is with them to train on the fitness aspect. He has his own programmes, he comes in advance, he has come here for the last three trips.
“We have one session in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening,” he explained.
“Our players are very eager to train. We take care to focus on their diet, we try to make sure that they don’t eat any heavy or junk food, and the players are keen to take this on as well, because they can see that if you don’t take care of this, then you cannot even begin to address the other departments.
Jesrani went on to say: “Of course, every professional player will need to watch their diet, because that is the most pressing problem for some of them, and fortunately, in our case, our players get good support from their families and they are all committed. To watch their diet is a big sacrifice for them, because from playing cricket, they are actually not getting as much in their pocket as some of the other players who play for other countries do get. The players know that and yet they have a lot of sincerity and dedication, and they really sacrifice a lot.”
Given that several of Oman’s players are part-timers who also have full-time jobs, he was also unrestrained from praising the players who represented Oman, as well as the companies that did not hesitate from releasing them whenever they were required for national duty.
“Our boys, whenever we need them, they will always come forward,” said Jesrani. “They are dedicated towards Oman’s cricket team. We are currently focusing on improving the batting of our players, because we feel we lack a bit there. Our bowling is good, and our fielding has improved, so it is the batting that we need to improve. Most of the players we have are together employed at about four of five corporates, and we are very grateful that they let them go for training. When we ask the companies to release them for us, they know that they are doing a national service for the country, and there is a lot of pride in that. They never say no to us, and that shows that they are committed to this, so it is good that we have the cooperation of the corporates.”
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Dad Mohammed Al Balushi added, “I am always with the team in terms of coming around and seeing them practising. They are exciting to watch. Overall, we are a good unit. The trainers are good, the coaches are good, so I think Oman will fight at any tournament. It is not the same situation as was present 10 years ago. We have improved a lot and we are coming up. We are on the international cricketing map now. All the boys are excited. Seeing them play in their homeland makes all of us proud.
“Earlier, we used to book pitches somewhere and we use to play on AstroTurf, but now – by the grace of god – we have everything. Good pitches, a good ground, a good indoor facility, we have this hub now, so all the boys are happy,” he said. “I think our aim is to be perfect before every tournament, so that we can give a fight to any international team.”
But for all the glamour and fame that goes towards commercial sports today, there is still no price you can put on the honour that athletes feel when they represent their country and sing their national anthem with pride.
To find out more about what it actually felt like to represent Oman we spoke to two cricketers: Yusuf Ibrahim Al Balushi and Sabah Al Qabil, both of whom have represented Oman at international level.
“I have been playing cricket for 11 years,” Yusuf said. “As an Omani, I loved football, naturally, but when I saw the cricket matches being screened on TV, it made me curious and that’s when I first developed an interest in playing cricket,. So I thought ‘let’s try’. I tried to play cricket and trained really hard, and the reward for that is that I am now playing for the national team. There are many Omanis who feel that that they don’t connect with cricket, but to them, I would like to deliver a message.
“I have always been saying that cricket is an excellent game, and I think more Omanis should take an interest in it. I pray that more Omanis play cricket. Whenever there is a match, we start our preparations well in advance. It is good to see our fans coming to see us, and we hope that we are able to give good performances and win games.
Sabah, who has been playing cricket since 2004, said that although cricket has only just begun to gain popularity among the Omanis, the sport’s future is bright in the country.
“I think we now have 10 to 12 all-Omani teams in the league. I have just loved the fact that it brings all the teams together. That is what sports is about – it is about bringing people together. One day, you think about winning off the next ball, but you might end up losing off that ball, so it is a very unpredictable sport. You get to make a lot of friends, and it is a great game to play. We prepare individually sometimes, because it can be tough on occasion to bring everyone together. We always look to play a wonderful, exciting game that will get the audience on its feet.” – [email protected]