The Oman national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Oman and is managed by the Oman Cricket Board, which became an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2000, and achieved associate status in 2014. Oman Cricket History.
Played T20 matches at the international level. On 24 April 2019, Oman achieved one-day international status for the first time until 2023, when they defeated tournament hosts Namibia by four wickets in the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.
ACC Trophy
Oman’s first competitive matches came in the 2002 ACC Trophy, and since then the team has competed in several Asian Cricket Council tournaments, finishing runners-up in the 2004 ACC Trophy and winning the ACC T20 Cup twice. Oman participated in the ICC World Cup qualifiers without qualifying for the final tournament, finishing ninth in the 2005 ICC Trophy and eleventh in the 2009 World Cup qualifiers.
In July 2015, with their win against Namibia in the 2015 ICC World T20 Qualifier, Oman secured Twenty20 international status and qualified for the 2016 ICC World T20 in India, It was the first major international tournament.
T20 International
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all T20 matches played between Oman and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20.
Most cricket in Oman is played by expatriate Indians and Pakistanis rather than local Omanis – in 2010, only 100 of the 780 players in the national league were Arab or about 13 percent. The composition of the Omani national team generally reflects this, although several Arabs have appeared for the team. To increase the popularity of cricket among the Arab population, quotas for Arab players have been introduced for both club teams and the national team.
Compared to other associate nations, Oman has been incredibly consistent and the fastest team in terms of performance growth. The team was only competing in Division 5 in 2016 against smaller teams like Tanzania, and Nigeria. She became an associate member only in 2014. But in just 4 years she has become a strong ODI player and a strong partner. Teams in cricket have also established themselves in T20Is, winning across all divisions and participating in the World T20. Doing all this hard work in such a short time is an incredible achievement.
ICC Membership
Oman became an associate member of the ICC in 2000. His senior international debut came in the 2002 ACC Trophy where he failed to progress past the first round, with his only win coming against Qatar. A huge improvement was shown in the 2004 tournament when they reached the final where they lost to the United Arab Emirates.
This qualified them for the 2005 ICC Trophy, which was the final qualifying stage for the 2007 World Cup. It also qualified them for the Asia Cup in 2006. They won the tournament by defeating Bahrain in the group stage. They finished fourth in the 2014 ACC Premier League in Malaysia with three wins.
ICC Trophy
In 2005, Oman became the first affiliate member of the ICC to participate in the ICC Trophy. Despite being the mystery man of the tournament, he lost all his group games but then won the play-off games against Uganda and USA, the latter when he scored a massive 345 with an unbeaten partnership of 127 runs. The target was successfully pursued. For the eighth wicket. This placed them ninth out of twelve teams in the competition, good enough to secure a place in Division Two of the ICC World Cricket League in 2007.
2006 saw a dip in Oman’s form, as they were eliminate in the first round of the ACC Trophy, their only win coming against the Maldives. As mentioned above, he was originally schedule to participate in the 2006 Asia Cup, playing his ODI debut against Pakistan and India. However, the tournament was postpone until 2008, and the ACC decided to use the 2006 ACC Trophy as a qualification tournament, meaning Oman was replace by Hong Kong.
In 2007
In October/November 2007, Oman participated in the inaugural ACC Twenty20 Cup held in Kuwait, where they played in Group A against; Afghanistan, Malaysia, Nepal, and Qatar. Oman finished in the top two of their group and qualified for the semi-final stage. Oman beat Kuwait in their semi-final, then shared the tournament after drawing the final against Afghanistan.
In November 2007, Oman traveled to Namibia to compete in Division Two of the ICC World Cricket League. They played Denmark, the hosts, and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to the two Division Three qualifiers. Uganda and Argentina. Although Oman won all their group matches, they lost to the United Arab Emirates in the final. Based on a top-four finish in this tournament, Oman qualified for the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifiers. The final tournament to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Oman Cricket History.
In 2009
In January 2009, Oman participated in the ACC Cup, Challenge tournament in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They beat Maldives and Bhutan in the semi-finals and finals respectively to reach the top spot with ease. The fourth favorite to win the cup were hosts Thailand who finished fourth.
In April 2009, Oman traveled to South Africa to participate in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers. The final tournament to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Oman finished last in their group during the tournament and defeated Denmark by 5 wickets in the 11th place play-off.
In the 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup, Oman was draw in Group B. In the group stages of the competition, they won all five of their games, topped the group. And qualified for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, they lost to the United Arab Emirates, thus missing out on a chance to win back-to-back titles. In the third place playoff, they defeated Kuwait. Oman Cricket History.
The victory enabled Oman to claim the final qualifying spot for the cricket tournament at the 2010 Asian Games. For more details click here