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RIYADH: Saudi Arabia registered their first victory in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier B as they beat Bhutan in Doha, Qatar on Friday.
Saudi Arabia were dominant in all fronts as they overcame Bhutan’s challenge by huge margin of 85 runs. Bhutan could only muster 85-8 in reply to Saudi’s 170-7 in 20 overs.
Bhutan invited Saudi Arabia to have a bit first at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium and the openers used it to their advantage. Abdul Waheed and Faisal Khan brought up 50-run partnership in just 23 balls. Waheed, who hit 18 off 15 holed out to long on in second ball of sixth over.
Faisal, who hit Karma Dorji for 24 runs in the fourth over then went boundary-less for the next nine balls and ultimately fell to Sagar Pradhan. He hit 3 fours and 4 sixes in his 20-ball-42.
Skipper Waji Ul Hassan then steadied the ship for Saudi Arabia as he stitched mini partnerships with Usman Khalid (14) and Manan Ali (12). While Waji kept the scoreboard ticking his partners were slower than run-a-ball against Bhutan’s bowlers.
Player of the match Waji brought on his second T20 half century hitting Dorji for a six and a four in 16th over. He then followed one wide but hit straight to mid wicket. He ended scoring 52 runs off 39 balls with 3 fours and sixes each.
Zain Ul Abidin and Usman Najeeb hit a six each towards the end as Saudi reached 170 mark.
In reply, Ishtiaq Ahmad rocked the top order of Bhutan with double blow. After giving away single in first over he came back to take wickets of Tenjin Ragbey and skipper Thinley Jamtsho in consecutive deliveries, both for nought.
Bhutan were soon reduced to 10-3 as Usman. Najeeb hit Mikyo Dorji’s off stump.
Bhutan were 29-4 midway through their innings. But Jigme Singye’s 35 runs helped Bhutan to 85 runs in 20 overs. Singye, who 2 fours and sixes each in 41 balls was run out in the last over. Ishtiaq and Usman took 2 wickets each while Shahzaib, Zain Ul Abidin and Abdul Waheed got one each.
Despite losing first two matches in the tournament, Skipper Waji was hopeful of making it to the next round. ‘We didn’t achieve expected result in first two matches, but this win will help us. The tournament is long and we are hopeful of getting results to aid our target,’ he said.
Saudi Arabia have left the bottom of the table with this win as they climb to fifth. UAE, who beat Cambodia by 5 wickets have maximum 6 points in 3 matches. Hosts Qatar and Thailand have 4 points each. Bahrain are on level with Saudi while Bhutan and Cambodia are yet to open their account.
Top two teams from this qualifier will play the regional final, which serves as pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in 2026.
Malaysia and Kuwait have already booked their spot from Asia Group A qualifier, while Samoa and Japan are representing the East Asia-Pacific region. Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea will also compete in the regional finals.
If ever the spectrum of stakes faced by men’s international cricket teams needed to be viewed at its extremes, current events provide a vivid illustration. At one end is the imbroglio around who is prepared to play whom and where in the Champions Trophy in 2025. At the other end are the qualifying tournaments to decide who will play in the 2026 T20 and 2027 One Day World Cups.
Ever since the International Cricket Council announced in November 2021 that Pakistan would host the 2025 Champions Trophy, trouble has been brewing. The country has not hosted a global tournament since the 1996 World Cup, which it shared with India and Sri Lanka. Terrorist attacks on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in November 2008, and directly on the Sri Lankan team’s bus in Lahore in March 2009, ensured it would be a long time before international cricket returned to Pakistan.
In preparation, the Pakistan Cricket Board and government have embarked upon a major rebuilding program of its main stadiums. Whether these will be used for the Champions Trophy remains in the balance. It never seemed likely that the Indian government would authorize its cricket team to play in Pakistan, even though Lahore was identified as the most suitable venue given its proximity to the border. The possibility was quashed in unceremonious fashion last week.
After requests from the PCB for clarification about India’s intentions, a letter was sent by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the ICC, which formally forwarded it to the PCB. The letter confirmed what most people had long anticipated: India will not travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. In turn, the PCB sought advice from its government. Immediately, it dug its heels in, rejecting a compromise situation that has been used before — a hybrid model. This would see India playing its matches in a neutral location, possibly the UAE.
Previous compromise situations differ from this one. Pakistan is the nominated host. Since 2021, there have been at least 10 ICC board meetings. There is no report which indicates that concerns were raised about security issues and Pakistan is investing heavily in the event. Although it is understood the tournament budget has a provision for partial relocation of matches, Pakistan stands to lose significant, much-needed income from hosting, rumored to be $65 million.
India’s reasoning for not authorizing travel to Pakistan is on security grounds, which has riled the PCB. Security visits undertaken by ICC representatives have been positive. It is understood the PCB has a “master security plan,” shared with the BCCI on Oct. 10 and which does not appear to have faced any objections at the ICC’s October board meeting. The PCB is keen to show that Pakistan’s insecure reputation is in the past. It points to the fact that England, Australia and New Zealand have all toured there recently without incident.
Relations with India are of course different, based on deep-seated acrimony and tensions. These factors have been encapsulated in confusion over exactly where in Pakistan the actual trophy will be displayed on its tour of participating countries. The PCB had announced visits to cities in what India refers to as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The ICC was very quick to reject this itinerary and announced an amended one.
Currently, the ICC is in a state of management change. On Dec. 1 it will have a new chair, Jay Shah, who has been secretary of the BCCI since 2019. It is understood he raised strong objections with the ICC on the PCB’s plans to take the trophy tour to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. There do not seem to have been any comments from the outgoing ICC chair and, in this hiatus, the ICC is receiving blame for not being sufficiently pro-active.
It is between a rock and a hard place. India now has so much power in global cricket that, without its participation in major ICC events, commercial success would be significantly diminished. India can refuse to play in Pakistan, but if Pakistan refused to play in an ICC tournament it could be hit with ICC sanctions. No wonder Pakistan feels hard done by. Furthermore, the original release date of the tournament schedule has been delayed, hindering PCB’s organizational planning.
Shah’s position is an anomalous one. It feels as if he is writing letters to himself — as BCCI secretary to his future self as ICC chair, and another as incoming ICC chair to the PCB warning it not to upset his previous employers. So much for the ICC role being designated as independent.
No doubt he would have wanted the Champions Trophy issues to have been resolved before Dec. 1. The options seem to be that: a) Pakistan relents and agrees to the hybrid model; b) the event is moved out of Pakistan, with compensation for them, but huge loss of face; c) the tournament is postponed. In the latter case, there is the significant issue of media contracts not being fulfilled.
The Champions Trophy seems to be a tournament which generates more problems than positives. It is not so much the case with world cups.
These are tournaments in which ICC members aspire to play. Qualifying pathways, though complex, are delineated. Last week, six teams battled in Group B of the Challenger Cup in Uganda as part of the route to the 2027 ODI World Cup. They have two more round robin events to complete before the top two teams emerge. Currently, Uganda and Italy top the pile.
This week, seven teams compete in Qatar for the right to progress towards the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. One is Saudi Arabia, which is pitted against Qatar, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand and the UAE. The top two will progress to a regional final in August 2025. The gulf between the dreams of these teams and the geopolitics of the India-Pakistan stand-off is stark. India’s brinkmanship and Pakistan’s intransigence have combined to stretch the stakes to breaking point.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia lost their second match in a row as the UAE registered their second consecutive win in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier B in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday.
The UAE beat Saudi Arabia by 17 runs to go top of the table. Saudi Arabia could only muster 145 runs at the expense of six wickets in reply to the UAE’s 162-5 in 20 overs.
The UAE’s decision to bat first at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium did not go their way at the start, as right arm seamer Ishtiaq Ahmad bowled a maiden over in the first over against Alishan Sharafu. Usman Najeeb continued the momentum in the second over, conceding just four runs. Sharafu fell to Ishtiaq in the fifth over for 19, and skipper Muhammad Waseem was out in the next over, leaving the UAE at 38-2.
It was the partnership between Rahul Chopra and Asif Khan that put the UAE on the front foot. Asif Khan scored 45 runs off 37 balls, hitting three fours and three sixes before being bowled by Usman Khalid in the 16th over.
Chopra, who was later announced the player of the match, took the score past 150 as he completed his half-century in 32 balls. In total, he faced 36 balls and hit six fours and two sixes in his innings of 58 runs. He was out caught on the last ball of the innings. Usman Khalid took two wickets, while Ishtiaq and Shahzaib took one each.
In reply, Faisal Khan started off well for the Kingdom, but he lasted only 17 balls. Faisal scored 27 runs as he sent one straight to skipper Waseem off 35-year-old debutant Simranjeet Kang, who got the prized wicket in only his second ball of his T20I career.
A centurion in the previous match, Abdul Waheed failed to continue the momentum as he struggled to get the runs going. Usman Khalid (four) and Abdul (six) were back in the hut by the eighth over, with the score at just 43. Skipper Waji Ul Hasan saved his wicket to let Manan Ali fire, but the required run rate kept going up. Waji was run out for 17 runs off 27 balls, with no boundaries. Manan’s counter-attacking play soon ended as Kang got another much-needed breakthrough for the UAE. Manan scored one four and three sixes in his 28-ball 33.
With 67 runs needed off 24 balls to win, the lower middle order had a go. Abdul Wahid hit 15 runs off 10 balls, Zain Ul Abidin remained not out on 19 off nine, while Usman Najeeb added 18 runs in 11 balls. All three hit a four and a six each. Teenager Dhruv Parashar shared two wickets with Kang for the UAE, while Mohammad Jawadullah took one wicket.
The result meant the UAE would overtake hosts Qatar in the table. Both teams have four points from two matches, but the UAE is ahead on net run rate. Qatar had earlier beaten Bhutan by six wickets. Thailand also overcame their loss the previous day by beating Cambodia by 16 runs.
Bahrain, who beat Saudi Arabia on the first day, has two points. Bhutan, Cambodia and Saudi Arabia are yet to open their accounts. Winless Saudi Arabia and Bhutan will face each other on Friday.
Hosts Qatar are joined by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand and the UAE in the tournament. The top two teams from this qualifier will play in the regional final, which serves as a pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in 2026.
Malaysia and Kuwait have already booked their spots from the Asia Group A qualifier, while Samoa and Japan are representing the East Asia-Pacific region. Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea will also compete in the regional finals.
RIYADH: Opener Abdul Waheed went through a bittersweet experience as his maiden T20I century proved in vain as Saudi Arabia lost to Bahrain in their first match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier B in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.
Waheed, who almost single-handedly led Saudi Arabia’s chase of 189 runs, was caught out on the last ball as the Kingdom ended three runs short of Bahrain’s total. Saudi Arabia ended on 185-9 in reply to Bahrain’s 188-5 in 20 overs.
Saudi Arabia needed 11 runs to win off Bahrain player Imran Anwar’s last over, with Waheed off the strike. Usman Najeeb ran a bye to give the talisman his chance. Waheed then ran a couple on the second ball. Anwar then bowled two dots in the next two balls as Waheed felt the pressure.
With eight required off the last two balls, Waheed scored a boundary on the penultimate ball. But his shot on the final ball failed to beat the fielder and Saudi ended up losing the match. Anwar, under pressure, bowled a full toss that Waheed clobbered toward the long-off region but it failed to clear the boundary.
Waheed’s innings ended on 110 runs, which included eight fours and seven sixes. After being dismissed for 99 earlier in February against Cambodia, Waheed finally reached his ton, despite his side failing to register victory.
Saudi had earlier invited Bahrain to bat first at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium. Skipper Haider Ali stood tall for Bahrain as he hammered 67 not out off 51 balls to take the team to 188-5, hitting six fours and two maximums in the process.
Imran Anwar set the tone for the team with 53 off 35 balls, which included two fours and four sixes. Haider and Anwar shared a 95-run partnership for the fourth wicket in just 66 balls. Ishtiaq Ahmad and Usman Najeeb took two wickets each for Saudi Arabia.
Chasing an impressive total, Saudi Arabia kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but Waheed maintained the pace until the end. Vice captain Abdul Manan Ali was the next main contributor with 25 runs off 19 balls.
Manan Ali and Waheed put on 61 runs for the fourth wicket, but Waheed kept running out of partners. Ali Dawood, Imran Khan, and Imran Anwar took two wickets each for Bahrain, with Anwar taking the prized wickets of Manan Ali and Waheed.
Waheed, speaking to Arab News after the match, was disappointed not to have crossed the finish line but was not too downhearted.
He said: “I had the self-belief that if I could take the match to the end, we could win.
“Even though there was no strong support from the other end apart from Manan, I knew the chase was possible. I saw the scoreboard when we needed around 40 runs and knew one big over would bring the match to our side. We got 16 runs from the 18th over, and I completed my century too.
“I know 18 runs in the last two overs were possible, but it’s unfortunate we couldn’t do it. There were some difficult balls to play, but we didn’t execute our plans there.
“The first four balls in the last over were really good. After I hit a four on the fifth ball, there was a belief I could hit the last one too.
“The last ball was the easiest of the match, and I hit it well too. (It was) bad luck — the wind was against the play, and the long-on fielder held on to the catch.”
Waheed believes there were lessons to be learned, not just for him but the whole squad after five new players featured within their ranks.
He added: “I took the match to the end expecting to finish, but the support was not there.
“If I am in a similar situation next time, I will try to finish it two or three balls earlier so there’s less pressure. Other players in the team also understood how important it is to support a set batter in the middle.”
Waheed said he was too focused on the game to celebrate his milestone, adding: “I was just looking at the per-over economy rather than enjoying the century.
“Individual scores don’t mean anything if the team doesn’t win. I would swap it if it meant the team would win. Yes, a little bit of happiness is there for the milestone, but the team losing hurts more.”
Waheed is nevertheless confident that the team are capable of turning the tables in their upcoming matches. Saudi Arabia face the UAE on Wednesday, and he believes it could represent a good chance of victory.
He said: “We have a good batting unit this time, with batters who can come in at eight or nine and hit big. But we lack experience. There are five new players in the team and they learned a good lesson today.
“I have been playing for 12 years and have faced big teams. Those matches have prepared me to face bigger challenges. We have good batters and they just need to express themselves now.
“The UAE is our next opponent. We came up with extra plans this time to not just participate but to win as well. We knew matches would be close and if we win against the UAE it will open doors. We are focused on the tournament.”
In other matches on Tuesday, the UAE defeated Bhutan by 63 runs, while Qatar beat Thailand by five wickets.
Seven nations are taking part in the tournament with hosts Qatar joined by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand, and the UAE. The top two teams from the qualifier will compete in the Asia-East Asia-Pacific regional final, which is a pathway for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be held in 2026.
Malaysia and Kuwait have already qualified for the regional final from the Asia Group A qualifier, while Samoa and Japan are representing in the East Asia-Pacific A and East Asia-Pacific B qualifiers, respectively.
Nepal, Oman, and Papua New Guinea have also qualified for the regional finals.
Qualification for the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, scheduled to take place in India and Sri Lanka, is in full swing. From Nov. 19-28, Doha takes center stage for Asia Sub-Regional Qualifier Group B.
With seven nations taking part it looks set to be an exciting competition, with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand and the UAE joining hosts Qatar. The teams are competing for the last two places in the Asia-East Asia-Pacific regional final, to be held in Malaysia in August 2025.
Malaysia and Kuwait emerged successfully from the Asia Group A qualifier, while Samoa and Japan won the East Asia-Pacific A and East Asia-Pacific B qualifiers, respectively. Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea have already qualified by virtue of taking part in the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
The seven teams competing for these last two places will play in a round robin league, with the top two teams in the table progressing to the next qualifier.
Saudi Arabia are familiar with their rivals after taking part alongside them all in T20 tournaments this year. These matches were in either the Asia Cricket Council T20 Challenger Cup in Thailand or the ACC Premier Cup that followed in Nepal. In the Challenger Cup, Saudi Arabia convincingly beat Bhutan, Thailand, Japan and Cambodia in Bangkok, the latter in the final. This maintained their excellent record in Thailand, where they won the ACC 50-over version in 2023.
Saudi Arabia’s convincing qualification in February for the ACC T20 Premier Cup provided an opportunity for the team to test itself against strong opposition in Nepal. The bridge proved too large to gap, however, as only one match out of four played was won.
This ought not to be the case in the current Asia Group B qualifier in Qatar. The UAE are arguably favorite to win, sitting 16th in the ICC T20I men’s rankings. Closest to them are Bahrain (26), Qatar (28) and Saudi Arabia (33). Behind them come Cambodia, ranked 42nd, Thailand in 59th and Bhutan in 77th. Saudi Arabia have comfortably beaten each of them in the ACC T20 Challenger Cup so it is the matches against the three higher-ranking teams that are likely to prove crucial.
Three matches will be played each day for 10 days at either the West End Park International Cricket Stadium or the University Stadium in Doha from Nov. 19. Saudi Arabia’s first match is against Bahrain, who are just ahead in the T20I rankings.
If the Saudi team can start their campaign with a victory, they will have a good chance of challenging for one of the top two spots in the table — and a place in the Asia-East Asia-Pacific regional final. From there, the dream is the 2026 T20 World Cup.
COP29, the 29th UN annual conference on climate change, opened in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov. 11, providing another opportunity for international collaboration.
Last year’s event confirmed that international action to address climate change was way off track against target, and a focus of COP29 is how finance can be made available to developing countries to enable climate action. Achieving agreement is fraught with difficulty.
Given that there is such a gap between promises and action at national level, it should be little surprise that initiatives at a micro level have been piecemeal. In December 2018, the sports sector and the UN launched the Sports for Climate Action Framework. Its objective is to draw together sports organizations, teams, athletes and fans to raise awareness and develop actions to meet the UN goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The original signatories to the 2018 initiative numbered 17. Today, there are around 200. The list contains only six cricketing bodies — the England and Wales Cricket Board, Marylebone Cricket Club, Melbourne Cricket Club, Gloucestershire Cricket, Surrey Cricket and the Desert Vipers. The latter is one of six franchises in the UAE’s ILT 20 League and has sustainability at the core of its operations.
What also stands out from the current list is the presence of the national, international and world governing bodies of most other sports. Neither cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, nor 11 of its 12 full-member boards are signatories.
The sports sector generates emissions in various ways, including travel, energy and water use, catering, equipment production, pitch preparation, venue construction and in-stadium activity. Cricket is no exception. Hence the lack of commitment by most of its leading bodies to the Sports for Climate Action Framework is disappointing. It appears to reflect a lack of concern about cricket’s contribution to climate issues. There are few obvious external signs amongst the game’s custodians that a coordinated effort is being orchestrated and encouraged.
In fact, there are strong counterviews. Evidence of these erupted in early 2023 following the announcement that Alinta Energy’s sponsorship of Australian cricket, worth $40m over four years, would end in June 2023. Australia’s men’s captain, Pat Cummins, was accused of influencing the decision because of his climate activism.
Cummins is the public face of Cricket for Climate, an organization working to help local clubs install solar panels. He has insisted his personal stance played no part in either Alinta’s or Cricket Australia’s decision. This did not stop vitriolic personal attacks against him, and he was called a “climate catastrophist clown” and accused of “incoherent far-left activism” on Sky News. The channel went further by suggesting: “Sporting bodies need to understand that it’s one thing to alienate sponsors, but they are also alienating fans.”
This is heady stuff. Cummins has dealt with the criticism with dignity, doubling down on his activism. He and his peers have reminded people of the extreme climate conditions which players endured during the ODI World Cup in India in November 2023. These included exceedingly high temperatures, off-the-scale air quality readings and heightened fatigue levels, each of which had adverse impacts.
In some quarters, the riposte is that the players are handsomely rewarded and should keep quiet about societal issues. This puts me in mind of Milton Friedman, the free-market economist, whose stance was that the business of business is business, allowing no room for social responsibility. Cricket is a creator of emissions and waste for which, arguably, it should take responsibility. It is also one of the most vulnerable sports to extreme climate variations. Setting aside apocalyptic visions of stadiums on fire, floods devasting stadiums beyond recovery and unbearable air quality causing death, there is evidence of adverse effects on the game.
One example is the flooding of grounds by rivers bursting their banks in successive years. Worcester is one example, with relocation under consideration. This is ironic, given estimates that an international cricket arena requires around 60,000 liters of water per day.
Cricket seems to react to disasters rather than having plans to prepare for them. It does not appear to be taking steps to anticipate or accept changing trends in weather patterns or putting strategies in place to cope with them. The ECB, to its credit, launched an Environmental Sustainability Plan in November 2023. This has three priority areas — tackling climate change, managing resources and waste, and protecting the natural environment. Some county cricket clubs have sustainability strategies in place.
Within the ECB’s overall plan is an aim to build a more circular economy to replace buy-use-dispose-buy. This applies to equipment and it is in this context that the Desert Vipers’ initiative is so relevant. Their playing kit for the 2025 ILT20 league is produced by a local UAE company, Palmfit, obviating the need for long distance transport and creating local employment opportunities.
The kit uses recycled materials, reducing the need for new ones and lowering carbon footprint by approximately 50 percent. Water-based inks are used, eliminating some harsh chemicals. The kits are printed-on-demand, so made only when needed.
Whether the Indian franchises will follow suit is unknown, but there have been some initiatives in the Indian Premier League. In 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore wore jerseys made from recycled stadium waste in a match against Rajasthan Royals. However, even with schemes by other franchises, there is little evidence of a coordinated effort across the league.
Cricket is not only a potential victim of a mercurial climate; it is a contributor to environmental degradation. Despite being resource-heavy, it lags behind other sports in calculating its environmental impact, whilst development of sustainability plans is slow compared with other sports.
The reasons for this are not entirely clear but international leadership seems lacking. A balance needs to be achieved between the requirements of development, growth and environmental preservation.
Cricket’s leaders should not expect direction from COP29. They should generate it.
