Kuwait Women’s all set for Malaysia for
ACC Twenty 20 Champioship

Kuwait: Tuesday, 30 th June 2009. Kuwait’s women cricket team is all set to participate in the first ever ACC T 20 Women’s Championship for non-test playing Asian Nations being held at Malaysia from July 3-11, 2009. After its much impressive performance at the ACC U 19 Championship at Thailand last year, women’s cricket in Kuwait has tremendously improved and it was indeed a great achievement made by Kuwait Cricket authorities to promote this wonderful game in the oil rich kingdom among which the participation of three Kuwaiti girls in the squad is the most heartening one.

In spite of the scorching heat and unfriendly weather conditions the Kuwait Women’s squad had long training sessions under the watchful attention of Taher Khan & Tariq Rasool and the team is formed of the best up-and-coming young players who have been identified as potential future prospects for the national team. After an intensive training camp at the Kuwait Entertainment City grounds, the Kuwaiti side is well equipped and will now look towards their Asian counterparts for their next international fixture.

ACC has done a wonderful job by organizing such an event and Women's Cricket is a great vehicle for developing women's cricket in Asian region especially in the Middle East and we are delighted to be able to support their growth by offering them all the facilities, said Director General of Kuwait Cricket, Mr. Asad Baig.

The Kuwaiti squad includes talented girls from various schools and along with experiences and knowledge gained during their last tour to Thailand, the team is now looking forward to an opportunity to play a higher standard of cricket. The team has successfully nurtured and given the right opportunities they are bound to prove themselves as a challenging outfit.

Chasing a total of 184 runs to win the match, Roy Dias, the Sri Lankan stalwart opened the innings for KC President’s XI along with British Ambassador to Kuwait, Mr. Michael Aron. Both were in good nick and Roy Dias was in a punishing form as he stamped his class by effortlessly flicking Kaleem Ul Hassan over the mid wicket fence for a lovely six. Priyada Murali, the Kuwait U-19 women’s team captain effected the first break through for KC President’s XI by bowling the well settled Micheal Aron, with a swinging yorker. Roy Dias meanwhile retired after making a sparkling 32 runs. M. Venkatramana, the off spinner who played for India blasted the President’s bowling attack by plundering 33 runs in just 10 balls. Roy Dias & Venkatramana both retired not out after making 30s. They showed they've still got it - the spirit and the class.

The spirit was also well truly made to flow by our very gracious sponsor Mr. Chandra of Wataniya Airlines who came on board to make sure that the players had some great souvenirs to remember the day.

Thank you, on behalf of Kuwait Cricket

ACC U-19 Elite Cup Final
Afghanistan Play Hong Kong for berth to ICC World Cup

The final today is expected to be a grand contest between Afghanistan and Hong Kong which will be played at the KOC Ahmadi grounds. Kuwait Cricket has made special arrangements for the Afghan supporters who they expect will arrive in thousands yet again to cheer their team as they have done in the past during the previous ACC Twenty20 tournament.

On Wednesday amongst the thunderous roll of drum beats, Afghan dancing, loud cheers and scores of supporters Afghanistan stormed into the finals of the ACC U-19 Cup Cricket tournament inching towards that prestigious glory where a win would pit them against the best as qualifiers for the ICC U-19 World Cup tournament from the ACC Developing Nations dashing Nepal’s hope. During the keenly fought semi-finals, Nepal who is always a very good fielding side and relying on its bowlers to get them through had batted first after winning the toss. They managed to put up a score of 186-8 in 50 overs which is in that uncertain grey range where on a given day a chasing side gets it easily and then sometimes simply collapses. Prithu had formed the backbone of the Nepal score with 81 runs while Hamza Hotak returned with the best bowling figures of 10-4-18-3 for Afghanistan. The match was nicely balanced midway during the Afghan chase with Nepal taking their top 4 wickets and just half of the runs on the board. However, it was not Nepal’s day as fortune favored Afghanistan. With great mental reserve and application of correct technical skills the daunting partnership of Aimal Wafaa (61 NO) and Asghar Hotak (47 NO) took them into the finals in the 48 th over amongst the deafening roar of the Afghan supporters who had gathered at the KOC Ahmadi Unity ground since morning to cheer their team. Aimal Wafa was easily the Man of the Match.

On the neighbouring Hubara ground, Hong Kong continued their dream run into the finals with a hard fought victory over Qatar. Batting first after winning the toss Hong Kong was all out in the 46 th over with Irfan Ahmed (59) as their top scorer. It didn’t seem a big target to chase but some fabulous bowling complemented by sharp fielding enabled Hong Kong to dismiss Qatar for just 138 in the 49 th over. Only Ashish Kumar managed to put up a fight with a score of 41 for Qatar. Man of the match was awarded to Hong Kong’s Niaz Ali who really put the brakes on Qatar claiming 4 wickets for 26 runs

Kuwait Cricket has been privileged to receive great sponsorship support from Srilankan Airlines, Zajil Telecom, Gulf Bank, BKME, Raja Company, Wataniya Telecom, Nestle, Alam Al Tassameem Advertising Company, Kharafi Business Machines, and Bougammaz Printing Press. Their tremendous support for this tournament has made the event a success par excellence.

Afghanistan Storm Into ACC U-19 Elite Cup Finals
Hong Kong Outclass Qatar To Clinch The Other Spot

CLASH OF THE TITANS TODAY AT KOC AHMADI CRICKET GROUND KUWAIT CRICKET PROMISES A THRILLING TWENTY20 ENCOUNTER BETWEEN SUPERSTARS

The preparations for the ICC Centenary Exhibition match on the rest day of the 2009 ACC U-19 Elite Cup tournament are almost completed with the Superstars raring to go in a Twenty20 game scheduled at the KOC Ahmadi Cricket ground starting at 3:00 PM today. Head of the ACC Bandula Warnapura will be at the forefront joined by prolific retired test and first class cricketers from his home country Sri Lanka Roy Dias and Vinothan John, from Bangla Desh Raqeeb Ul Hasan, from India Venkat Ramanna, Hemant Kenkre and Divakar Vasu, from Pakistan Mansoor Akhtar, Naeem Ahmed, Kabir Khan and Iqbal Sikander who is also the ACC development officer for this region, and Tim Anderson the ICC Development Manager himself from Australia.

Bandula is presently the Director-Cricket Operations of Sri Lanka Cricket. He is also the Asian Cricket Council Development Manager. He played with distinction for Sri Lanka before they achieved Test status and was their first captain in Tests and ODIs. He captained the Sri Lankan team in their first four Test matches. He has been an ICC match referee, is a Level IV certified coach as well as being a Board-qualified Umpire. He has been the Sri Lankan National Coach and Director of Coaching. Since 2001 he has been their Director of Cricket Operations. As the head of ACC Bandula is constantly busy in promoting the game in almost 18 developing countries in Asia speak volumes of his dedication, interest and love for the game. He has visited Kuwait before and was highly impressed with the development of the game in the country, the structure of Kuwait Cricket and the way cricket is run here in general under the leadership of Sheikh Dhari Fahad Al Ahmed Al Sabah. This has led to Kuwait Cricket being awarded the premier U-19 Elite Cup tournament by ACC in which Bandula played a major role. His presence in Kuwait to attend the U-19 Elite Cup is an indication of his great interest in the development of the game in the country and the recognition of the efforts of Kuwait Cricket to bring Kuwait in the forefront of the Associate countries.

Participating in this tournament to officiate as Match referees Vinodhan John, Divakar Vasu and Naeem Ahmed are former prolific cricketers from Sri Lanka India and Pakistan respectively. Vinodhan John is a popular name in Sri Lankan cricket. He played in 6 Tests and 45 ODIs from 1982 to 1987. Vinodhan John used to share the new ball for Sri Lanka with Rumesh Ratnayake and the exploits of them are well known by all. Vinodhan’s ability to move the ball in the air and off the wicket had to be experienced to be believed. Given the right conditions he was unplayable. He has 28 Test scalps to his credit at an average of 21.92 while in ODIs he has taken 34 wickets at an average of 48.67. He has also taken 5 wickets in an innings twice with best bowling figures of 5/60 in test matches and 3/28 in ODIs.

Divakar Vasu is a renowned BCCI umpire and former Indian First Class cricketer. A left-handed all-rounder from Tamil Nadu, Vasu scored 3,001 runs and bagged 240 wickets in the 76 first-class matches played during a 15-year long career. This includes 3 centuries and 19 fifties while batting and fourteen 5 wickets haul and twice taking 10 wickets in an innings. Divakar Vasu is one of the coaches at the National Cricket Academy specializing in medium-pace bowling. Naeem Ahmed is also a popular personality hailing from Pakistan. He played one ODI against England in 1978. Naeem took 14 first class wickets in the 25 matches he played with best figures of 5/56.

India born Singapore coach Venkataramana is also a former Indian cricketer. He was a right arm off-spinner who played for Tamil Nadu in first class cricket. He took 247 wickets in his first-class career, 212 of them for Tamil Nadu. His performance in the domestic circuit earned him a place in the one-day squad against the touring New Zealand in 1988-89 and the team to West Indies. He played one ODI in which he returned with figures of 2/36. Against West Indies Venkataramana played only one Test match at Jamaica. He went wicketless in the first innings and could bowl one over in the second innings when West Indies needed eight runs to win. Still he took Desmond Haynes wicket, stumped in that over. With Venkatraman is Singapore team manager Hemant Kenkre who yet is another prolific First Class cricketer from India. Hemant carries the reputation of leading Sachin Tendulkar when they were fist introduced to the senior level cricket-Mumbai ‘A’ Divison, playing with the first opening batsmen for India Jeomal Naoomal to Vinod Kambli and including India test players such as Dilip Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, Hanumant Singh, Ravi Shastri and even Saurav Ganguly.

Kabir Khan, 34, is a former Pakistan international cricketer. He has been coaching Afghanistan since October 2008. In that time, they have won ICC World Cricket League Division 4 and the ACC U-17 Challenge titles. He is a right-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-fast bowler. A seam bowler with considerable pace, Khan first played on the Sri Lankan tour of 1994-95, and made appearances in the Pakistan team playing ten One Day Internationals. He had a respectable bowling average of just over 25. After retiring from First Class cricket, Kabir became Coach of his Habib Bank side and after gaining experience there, he served UAE National Cricket team as the head coach and later on moved to Afghanistan to become the head coach of their National Cricket team. He still plays league cricket in the UK, currently for Stirling County Cricket Club, as professional and is a highly qualifed ECB Level 3 coach.

Iqbal Sikander is the ACC Development Officer for Kuwait, Afghanistan, Singapore, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar speaks. He is a well known cricket personality amongst the English and Asian cricket nations. A former Pakistani cricketer he played four ODIs, all of them in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and was part of the Pakistan squad that won it. In 1991, playing for Karachi Whites against Peshawar in a one-day match, he recorded the extraordinary bowling analysis of 6.2-3-7-7; no other cricketer has ever taken seven wickets in a List A game for the cost of fewer runs. Iqbal spent a lot of time in English league cricket. In 2001, he took over 100 league wickets for Leigh Cricket Club in the Liverpool Competition.

With so many stalwarts displaying their enormous skills together on a single platform it is assured that no cricket lover will leave the venue disheartened but in fact enlightened with some additional knowledge of the beautiful game and filled with the spirit of cricket. Kuwait Cricket takes pleasure in inviting everyone to attend the exhibition match, cheer these heroes and have a fun filled evening.

KUWAIT CRICKET CELEBERATES ICC CENTENARY YEAR
OLD TIMER SUPERSTARS IN ACTION

In a dynamic move Kuwait Cricket has taken an initiative of conducting an All Stars Twenty20 cricket exhibition match on the rest day of the ongoing ICC world cup qualifying U-19 cricket tournament. The match will be held on 28 th April 2009 at the KOC Ahmadi cricket ground, where international acclaimed cricketers assembled in Kuwait for this ACC U-19 Elite Cup are expected to play. These include flamboyant retired test and first class cricketers from India Venkat Ramanna, Hemant Kenkre and Divakar Vasu, from Pakistan Mansoor Akhtar, Naeem Ahmed, Kabir Khan and Iqbal Sikander who is also the ACC development officer for this region, from Sri Lanka Roy Dias, Warnapura Bandula, Vinothan John, from Bangla Desh Raqeeb Ul Hasan, and ICC Development Manager Tim Anderson from Australia who was the captain of their U-19 team who won the junior World Cup. Speaking about this initiative Iqbal Sikander, who himself was one of the members of the successful ICC world cup winning Pakistan team in Australia in 1992, said that this is probably the most delightful way to celebrate the ICC centenary year. It is rare that so many international retired cricketers are assembled together at one place and Kuwait Cricket is very fortunate to have them at their disposal to be part of their celebration. A beaming Tournament Director Asad Baig commented that this is a tremendous opportunity for Kuwait Cricket to rub shoulders in a cricket field with the stalwarts of World cricket who, although retired are still very much connected to the game and we can now see them in action. You can still expect these players to pull a punch whether batting or bowling and witness some class act in a festival environment which is an ideal platform to celebrate the ICC Centenary year. The actual team distribution and match playing conditions will be discussed and finalized in a soon to be held meeting by the tournament organizing committee.

In a tensed and nail biting match played between Afghanistan & UAE at KEC ground, Doha, Afghanistan pulled a remarkable victory by a slender margin of 4 wickets that too with only 3 balls to spare. UAE batted first and scored 191 runs. Taimoor Khalil scored a fast 30 runs while Abdulla Azhar and Abhinav Guha played splendid cricket to score 24 & 31 runs respectively. Fahd Tariq hit a quick fire 37 runs which enabled UAE to reach 191 runs in the 49 th over.Aryub Zazi Zakiullah Zaki & Aimal Wafa took 3 wickets each for Afghanistan.

Debutants Kuwait U-19 Women’s cricket team brought immense laurel to the country as their performance in the recently concluded Asian Cricket Council U- 19 Women’ Championship at Chiang Mai, Thailand was hailed highly by cricket pundits. Taking up cricket only a few weeks back, the highly motivated women’s team performed incredibly well to finish 9th in ranking and thus earning a ticket to participate in the qualifying rounds for the  2010 Asian Games, in which cricket will make its first appearance. .

Rebirth of KCA as Kuwait Cricket

Kuwait City, Monday October 5, 2008.After the launching of Kuwait Cricket Association (KCA) in the year 1996 under the able leadership of HE. Sheikh Dhari Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, cricket in Kuwait has reached great heights. The most remarkable achievement was the elevation of Kuwait as an Associate member of International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2005. The latest milestone achieved by Kuwait Cricket Association has been the launching of its own cricket ground in Sulaibiya, which is endowed with a beautifully laid natural turf wicket and lush green outfield. ...r.