Friday 03 / January / 2025
Shahzad Raza
MUSCAT: Oman cricket heroes arrived to a boisterous welcome at Muscat International Airport on Friday morning after the team qualified for the ICC T20 World Cup to be held in Australia next year.
Apart from senior Board members of Oman Cricket (OC) and a sizeable presence of cricket fraternity, the national team was welcomed by Hamza Ali Mohammed Eidroosa, Director of Public Relations and Media, Ministry of Sports Affairs, before the players and support staff was garlanded for the stupendous achievement in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier. Cricket fans and families showered rose petals on the team amid a chattering of warm greetings and giggles in the arrival lounge.
The 14-nation tournament was meant to provide an opportunity for its top six teams to showcase their talent at the biggest stage – ICC T20 Cricket World Cup 2020 – scheduled to be held in Australia in October next year and Oman availed it by finishing among the top six.
“Oman has maintained its status by reaching the World Cup for the second successive time, which is a big achievement for an Associate nation,” said an elated Pankaj Khimji, senior Board member and team’s mentor.
Madhu Jesrani, Secretary Oman Cricket and team manager, was delighted at Oman team achieving its prime goal of qualifying for the World Cup.
“We made a wonderful start to the tournament by winning four of our first five games and missed direct qualification by losing to Jersey. In the end, we managed to achieve the qualification target. There will be a lot of introspection and, rest assured, immense planning and preparation before we embark on our trip to Australia next year,” added Jesrani, who became the darling of international media for his endless energy and passion captured on TV cameras throughout the tournament.
Oman’s head coach Duleep Mendis said he knew his team would be able to defend the target of 137 against Hong Kong.
“We needed to post a fighting total on the board but were in dire straits at 42 for 6 in the 9 th over. Jatinder played an exceptional innings and kept us in the game before (Naseem) Khushi came out and played a little gem to take us to 137. That very instant I knew we would be able to defend this total. Bilal then bowled the spell of his life as we reduced Hong Kong to 18 for 5. He received wonderful support from his new ball partner Fayyaz Butt. Even a Test nation would have been proud of the quality of fast bowling on display,” said a jubilant Mendis.
Oman captain Zeeshan Maqsood said his team went through some really tough time after it lost the key game against Jersey.
“We lost a game against Jersey we really should have won and qualified. And then we lost to Namibia which meant we had a do-or-die match against Hong Kong which was our last chance for qualification. We knew we had a wonderful record against Hong Kong and that gave us confidence. We were put under a lot of pressure by Hong Kong but we managed to fight back thanks to Jatinder and
Khushi and then outstanding bowling by Bilal and Butt made sure Hong Kong would not get the start it was hoping for. Despite the hiccups, we are happy that our team was able to achieve the main goal of qualifying for the World Cup,”
added the captain cool, known for staying calm in crunch situations.
