Oman - Cricket's New Home In Asia

It is no mean achievement that in a football-crazy country like Oman, cricket continues to make international headlines - winning accolades and bringing trophies home.

- Duleep Mendis

Having struggled for decades to make a mark in international cricket, Oman turned the corner in 2014, one year after I joined, when it became the 38th Associate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), adopting a much more professional approach to its planning, preparation and playing methods.

The results were astonishing, to say the least. In the last five years, Oman’s cricket team have made a name for themselves, climbing the ladder, step by step, across the ICC’s Associate level competitions. After being awarded ODI status in 2019, Oman is now ranked among the top twenty teams in white ball cricket – 13th in ODI and 18th in T20. Recent crowning glories include qualifying for both the ICC T20 World Cup for the 2nd time in India in 2016 and for Australia in 2020 following a strenuous qualification struggle.

Looking back, no one really thought that one day Omani cricket would bring more international acclaim and recognition than any other sport it plays. Having developed a top class cricket infrastructure in the last five years, Oman is now beginning to grow in stature as a dependable host of international cricket events and competitions.

Cricket is going to play a significant role in the government’s efforts to turn Oman into a popular sports and tourism hub in the Middle East.

How Oman made the seemingly impossible, possible in a span of a few years makes for an interesting story.

Oman was fairly low-ranked when I joined Oman Cricket (OC) in 2013, it was a good challenge for me to change that and I decided to accept the position.