Inaugural Desert T20 Tournament to start January 14th 2017 in the United Arab Emirates. Eight of the top Associates in Cricket collaborate to bring the inaugural Desert T20 tournament to the United Arab Emirates. To be played in the United Arab Emirates during January 2017, the 7-day tournament will commence play on Saturday January 14th at Abu Dhabi Cricket Club’s Zayed Cricket Stadium, and will continue daily through to January 17th before relocating to Dubai Sports City’s International Cricket Stadium for the final 2-days of match play, culminating in the finals on Friday January 20th.
Associate countries participating include Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, and the UAE.
“Emirates Cricket Board are delighted to collaborate with the participating Associates to bring this inaugural T20 tournament to the UAE. The aim of the tournament is to provide an opportunity for our teams to play more competitive Men’s T20 cricket.” said Zayed Abbas, Emirates Cricket Board Member. “Each of the participating countries are very close in ICC T20I rankings, so we expect the quality of cricket to be very strong”.
Drawn in to Pool A are Afghanistan (9), Ireland (17), Namibia (NR), and the UAE (14). While in Pool B contains The Netherlands (11), Scotland (13), Oman (16) and Hong Kong (15).
Saturday’s opening matches, in Abu Dhabi, will be Scotland v Hong Kong at 2pm followed by Afghanistan v Ireland at 7pm. All subsequent day’s will start at 2pm, for match 1, followed by match 2 at 7pm.
