Cricket tournament added to Qatar National Day festivities

This year National Day will focus on the theme of One Love, which aims to show the importance of unity between expats and citizens.

In an effort to promote and portray this unification, the Committee of Associated Activities for Qatar National Day Celebrations has created events aimed at specific expat communities. 

Considering Qatar's South Asian expats and the popularity of cricket within its community, the committee along with Lagaan Cricket Club, is hosting a four-nation T20 cricket tournament at Qatar National Cricket Stadium (West End Park) on December 18. 

There will be different teams representing expat's from India, Pakistan, Bagladesh, and Sri Lanka.

This is the first tournament of its kind to be played in Qatar and is being held under the patronage and support of Col Abdullah Khalifa al-Muftah, Director of Public Relations in the Ministry of Interior (MoI), and Mana al-Mana, Qatar businessman and manager-owner of West End Park.

The participating teams will play 20-over matches on a league-cum-knockout basis and the top two teams will play in the final the same afternoon, between 2pm and 5pm. Matches will start at 8am. 

A total of QR15,000 will be given away to the teams, of which the winner will get QR7,000 and the runners-up QR4,000. The other two participating teams will get QR2,000 each.

The organisers said the entire stadium would be decorated with Qatar’s national flag and there would also be music by a DJ, as seen in IPL matches.

A raffle draw featuring prizes such as TV, mobile phones, DVD, watches and home appliances would also be there.

At the stadium, gates 1, 3 and 5 will be open for general spectators while Gate 7 will be reserved for families.

There will be free transport for families and six buses will be operated from DPS-MIS (Al Wakrah), Family Food Centre (Airport Road) and Home Centre (near Jaidah flyover). The timings are 10am and 1pm.

The buses will return at 7pm from the parking area in the stadium complex.

Source: Gulf Times

Photo Credit: Joseph "Jay" Suasin