Interface Ramadan cricket in August

The draw for next month’s first-ever Interface Ramadan Floodlit Cricket Tournament has been made at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Global Cricket Academy at Dubai Sports City.

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By (Alex Leach)

Published: Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:55 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 7:26 AM

Yogi Group, Fly Emirates and Phoenix Medicine were kept apart as the three top seeds and drawn in Groups A, B and C respectively, leaving the nine remaining sides to be placed at random in the same three qualification pools. Emirates Islamic Bank, Transgulf CC and a team yet to be confirmed joined Yogi Group, whereas Eurocon Alubond, HSBC and Mashraq Bank shall battle it out with Fly Emirates. Seven Seas Strikers, Interface and Farooq CC complete the inaugural competition’s dozen-strong line-up in the final quartet alongside Phoenix Medicine.

The winners and runner-ups will then face off against each other to determine the finalists (A1 vs B2, B1 vs C2, C1 vs A2), with the victor boasting the best NRR qualifying automatically for the final and other two outfits locking horns to eventually face them. “We’re going on to bigger things by tying up with the ICC Global Academy, where we’ve done the Debonair Cup — which was just completed a few days ago — and the bigger one is the Interface Ramadan Cricket Cup,” the honorary secretary of the Dubai Cricket Council (DCC), Mohamed Lokhandwala, said of the contest, which begins on Tuesday, August 2nd.

“There will be six fixtures in each pool and thus 18 qualification games overall, three ‘quarter-finals’, one ‘semi-final’ and a final, making it 23 matches in the total tournament, which will finish on either 27th or 28th August.”

Competitive cricket is not the only enticing aspect on offer either, with complimentary coaching clinics with Dayle Hadlee and Mudassar Nazar and free net sessions in the offing as well.

Former New Zealand international Hadlee added: “We have been absolutely delighted with the relationship that we’re forming with the DCC.

“Now that we’ve got lights here, we’ve just seen some tournaments played and they’ve been a great success. We’re looking forward to further success in the future.

“We’re also extremely excited about hosting our first Ramadan tournament in conjunction with the DCC. Mudassar and I have been very interested to see what the standards have been like and, in the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve seen so much improvement in so many players and teams.

“That augurs really well for the DCC and the Emirates Cricket Board. We’re looking forward to having some involvement with the teams, which we’ve already been doing over the last month or so.

“I’d like to wish the DCC the very best for a successful tournament. We’re going to enjoy watching it and I hope the 12 teams enjoy playing in it.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com

(Alex Leach)

Published: Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:55 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 7:26 AM

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