Oman cricket is now on the global map

When one thinks of cricket, Oman’s red and green kit is not really the first thing that comes to mind.
We are, of course, reminded of the perfectly manicured pitches at hallowed cricket grounds such as Lords in the UK, the Wanderers in Johannesburg, and the famed SCG in Australia, which are steeped in decades of sporting history.
However, a group of ambitious cricket enthusiasts in the Sultanate are looking to ensure Oman too earns the right to one day play at such famous stadia around the world. Having already tasted success when the Sultanate famously beat Ireland at the World Twenty 20 in 2016, team Oman have now set their sights on qualifying for the ICC Cricket World Cup in future.
It is a plan that is being tackled at both senior and grass root level: Oman recently won back promotion to Division 2 of the six-division International Cricket Council, having previously earned promotion to that level, and now that they are back there, have their sights firmly set on the future. They did so on a date which will forever be intertwined with the Sultanate’s history – November 18.
Oman recently hosted the third division of the World Cricket League (WCL 3), their first ever international ICC tournament, and Pankaj Khimji, the director of Oman Cricket, says this was the result of years of planning and dedication.
“WCL 3 is the third division in the global ICC ranking system,” he said. “Two winning teams will get promoted, the bottom two teams will get relegated. We lost our way a bit in the last tournament we played, but we have now all the prerequisites required, and this time, we have the USA, Uganda, Denmark, Singapore, Kenya and Oman playing in WCL 3.
“We feel we have got what it takes to back to WCL 2, and we are so excited and gung-ho about it. Incidentally, when we beat Namibia to go and play in the world T20 qualifiers, it was on 23 July, our Renaissance Day, and we have secured promotion to WCL 2 on 18 November, our National Day,” he added.
But away from the bright spotlights and manicured pitches of the new cricket ground in Amerat, another project has recently broken ground – Oman inaugurated its national cricket academy ahead of the tournament, and hopes to spawn the next generation of young players for the nation.
The academy has the latest state-of-the-art features that makes it at par with facilities across the rest of the world, and is the first of its kind in Oman. Pankaj and Oman Cricket are already in the process of meeting schools to invite young children in the hopes that visiting the academy will spark in them an interest in taking up the gentleman’s game.
“It is a watershed moment that we in the cricketing fraternity in Oman are really looking forward to, because Oman now has its own cricket academy, and this not only helps us take top-level cricket to a higher notch, but also helps us attract nascent talent and grassroots cricket, especially among nationals,” said Pankaj. “This is a sport that is highly played across the Asian expat community, but the vision is to see cricket being played regularly across the spectrum by nationals and youth across the country, much in the same manner in which football is currently played on the beaches.
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“Can I see cricket being played in a similar fashion in the compounds, in the streets, outside the houses, on the beaches?” he added. “Of course I can see that happen. If you look at the ICC journey or the Asian Cricket Council recognition, it is only as late as 2012 that we got accredited to the Associate Level at the ICC, we were the 38th nation to be accredited, and at that time, our ranking was around the 30s. They didn’t know what to expect from Oman, but full credit must go to the team and the management.”
Oman went through all of the WCL 3 tournament unbeaten, finishing on top of their group and earning the right to play in Division 2 next year. They beat Kenya by five wickets in their opening game, before overcoming Singapore with more than 10 overs and four wickets to spare.
The Danes were next to face Oman, and the host – again batting second – beat the Scandinavians by three wickets, before overcoming the United States in a hotly-contested encounter, with just three balls to spare. But their day of just rewards was – as luck would have it – on the 18th of November, when they defeated Uganda by a whopping 10 wickets.
What made Oman’s win so special was that while several of the teams who travelled here featured full-time athletes, the home team consisted of amateur cricketers.
“All our players are amateurs,” said Pankaj. “They all have nine to five jobs, and they come from a background where the food habits are not conducive for athletics, and they are not in a position to afford to health clubs of the world or the conditioning of the world. Our role is to ensure that they get groomed into that role. Can I make a 34-year-old into a spring chicken? No, I cannot do that, but at least I can prolong his abilities and ensure he doesn’t pick up injuries.
“We have the means now, we have a well-oiled team, and we had brought in a South African conditioning coach so that our players would be prepared to go just that extra half a yard,” he added. “What you must appreciate is that being at an average age of 32 or 33 is not the same as being a peak cricketer in the mid-20s when it comes to getting results. We mitigated the chances of injury due to the long duration of the tournament. When you are playing 50 overs, across five or six strenuous days, then you have to have the stamina to last throughout the game.
“I think seeing Oman on the global map of one of the top 20 countries was the ultimate goal, and it’s only 10 years ago that we got any sort of acceptability or accreditation in the world’s cricket stage, and to go from obscurity into the top 20 ranked at number 16 is something that we are really looking forward to,” said Pankaj. “We began in Division 6, and each division has six teams. We made our way up from Division 6 to Division 5 all the way up to Division 2, and we had one clear run, which I think is unprecedented in the world of the cricket league history. No team has moved from Division 6 to Division 2 unscathed, and this was one of the brightest moment.”
Having now made it back to where they previously were and now armed with the resolve to move forward in the right direction, Pankaj said the preparation his team had undergone for these tournaments had changed rapidly as Oman Cricket continued to learn lessons from previous matches. Oman had previously played in the qualifying rounds of the T20 World Cup in Scotland and Ireland, where 14 teams featured. Six would make it to the final, but the players were playing in conditions so alien to them with their fingers were so frozen that the ball would not turn and the bat would slip from their fingers.
“This time, we decided to camp in Northern Ireland outside of Belfast, and we had all the Asian coaches with us, so we called the Marylebone Cricket Club, and they said they had the former English Test cricketer Derek Pringle available, so we contracted him and asked him to help us understand English and British seam conditions,” recalled Pankaj, who was only too happy to recall how Oman qualified for the World T20 two years ago, looking to draw parallels with what the nation had planned for the future.
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“We lost to Kenya in our first game, and I think we buckled because we were overawed by the occasion,” he recalled. “We beat Afghanistan in our second game, and this was just four years ago, when Afghanistan were being hailed as the team to watch for the future. It’s all about mindset, and so we realised we could go forward and had much to offer. In that final game for qualification, we were playing Namibia in Edinburgh. I had come back to Oman, having made up my mind that we had done our bit, not realising that our boys had actually done enough to get into the reckoning.
“My father, who is the chairman of Oman Cricket, said the whole team wanted me back, and I said that whichever way this game goes, I will be there with the boys,” added Pankaj. “That was the game that will always be etched in my mind as the game that put Oman on the map of world cricket. We qualified on foreign soil, against a much better nation. We were the minnows of the minnows.”
Joining Oman in next year’s Division 2 from this tournament will be the United States, who are making it to that division for the first time in their history, and their players are just as excited as their Omani counterparts to right a new chapter for the sport in their country.
“I never thought I would play professional cricket,” said batsman Monank Patel. “I know cricket exists in the USA, but I never thought I would make a professional career out of it, as a cricketer. I feel I am lucky to get this opportunity at the right time. I never thought it would be this big, and I am just making the most of it right now. We all knew that this tournament was really big for us. It is not just about winning, but we wanted to dominate the tournament.
“Our goal is to be the number one team across all the associate teams, so this is just the beginning. We are taking this one step at a time, and this is going to be a big thing for the USA, soon,” he added. “In Oman, you cannot get these kinds of wickets every time, because this was a batting paradise. You cannot get this kind of wicket everywhere, so I just want to make the best of it and score as many runs as I can get. I just want to score as many as I can.
“I know it is really hot, but if you score runs, you won’t feel the heat,” said Patel. “From the beginning of the tournament, I had my own individual goals, and I just wanted to score, so the hunger for the runs just kept increasing. I am currently in good form, so I wanted to continue doing the best for my team. We knew that there was going to be quality cricket, with international-level bowlers and quality batsmen. The main thing was playing as a team, and giving it our hundred percent, because we had great confidence.”
Aaron Jones was also quick to share his thoughts on the tournament.
“I believe this is a great time, and we are a team that is so united. The team is a great family, and you can see that on the field,” he said. “I want to say, thank you for all the support thus far, and I want to ask everyone to continue to support us, not just in this tournament, but every tournament.” – [email protected]