Oman Cricket is expected to the first-half of the ICC World T20 (the qualifiers) after Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shifted the tournament from India.
The Oman board also have a task to upgrade its facilities within three months after the Indian cricket board took its time to announce its inability to host the mega tournament on its soil.
“The estimated cost of upgradation will be $2 million and it will be undertaken by Oman Cricket. It (getting T20 World Cup and playing in it) is beyond our dreams. We are looking to host at least six matches,” said Madhu Jesrani, the secretary of Oman Cricket, to IANS.
The association is looking forward to accommodating 3,000 to 4,000 fans.
“At the moment, there is no facility for the crowd. We are looking to build a grandstand with a crowd capacity of 2,000-3,000 fans. That apart, there will be hospitality box/boxes with a capacity of 1000,” added Jesrani.
The ICC refused to disclose details of how many matches will be held in Oman and in UAE, which is expected to hold the latter stages involving big teams.
“The ICC is likely to take another two weeks to come out with the entire schedule. But as far as the preparations of venues go, there are standard basic requirements that ICC demands and Oman Cricket is aware of it. It is yet to be decided whether both the groups of preliminary phase will play their games in Oman or only one group will play there,” said an official aware of the development.
The initial matches reportedly involves eight teams — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman and Papua New Guinea – who could be divided into two groups.
“The situation is not encouraging. We have a night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am. We will have to take into consideration government norms too,” added Jesrani.
The T20 World Cup will begin form October 17 and the final will take place on November 14.
