The cream of cricketers from UAE’s domestic cricket will be seen in action during the AVR Pay Ajman T20 Cup powered by SkyExchange.Net at the Ajman’s Malik Cricket Stadium to be held from March 13 to March 22. Six franchise teams have hand-picked some of the best UAE domestic cricketers to bolster their chances of winning this first of a kind T20 tournament being organized by the Ajman Cricket Council. This tournament is part of the Ajman Cricket Council’s initiative to further enhance UAE’s domestic cricket and sharpen their competitive edge.
The six teams are named after the teams that play in the popular Abu Dhabi T10 tournament and hence will be called Bangla Tigers – Karwan, Maratha Arabians – Brother Gas, Delhi Bulls – Future Mattress, Northern Warriors – Defenders, Deccan Gladiators – MGM and Ajman Heroes.
Karwan, Brother Gas, Future Mattress, Defenders and MGM are the top domestic teams in the UAE.
“We will have the best of the UAE’s talented cricketers playing in this tournament which will be live streamed and people from different parts of the world can watch the talent present here,” said Shaji Ul Mulk, who has visualized this tournament like he had conceptualized the T10 format and transformed it into the internationally acclaimed Abu Dhabi T10 tournament.
The draft held at the Capital Club DIFC resulted in the six teams picking the best in-form players into their respective teams from a pool made available to them. The six teams will be led by experienced players like Babar Iqbal (Bangla Tigers – Karwan) Jiju Janardhanan (Maratha Arabians – Brother Gas), Umair Ali Khan (Delhi Bulls – Future Mattress) and Muhammad Yasir Maharvi (Northern Warriors – Defenders).
Adeel Malik, brother of Pakistan Test star Shoaib Malik will lead the Deccan Gladiators – MGM. Ajman Heroes is being captained by Adnan Ul Mulk, son of Shaji Ul Mulk and vice chairman of Mulk Holdings. As a leg spin bowler, Adnan has played many match winning performances in the past before he went on to focus on his career.
To boost rising stars in the UAE, every team will have one Under-19 player as well. They are Puniya Mehra, Hamdan Tahir, Maroof Merchant, Nilansh Keshwani, Hamad Arshad and Hassan Khan. In the past, many promising youngsters have represented the UAE Under-19 team too. The lush green Malik Stadium at Ajman is now ready to host this event.
As per this tournament’s format, all teams will play each other once in the league stage, after which the top four will qualify for the knock-out stage The final is scheduled for March 22.
Teams:
Bangla Tigers – Karwan
Babar Iqbal (c), Ali Khan, Fayyaz Ahmed, Tariq Mehmood, Puniya Mehra (U19), Ismail Khan, Sagar Kalyan, Rameez Shahzad, Asfand Dyar, Arsalan Jawed, Ali Naseer, Mohd Farooq, Fahad Nawaz, Ameer Hamza, Sheraz Ahmed Piya, Furqan Khalil.
Maratha Arabians – Brother Gas
Jiju Janardhanan (c), Ansh Tandon, Hamdan Tahir (U19), Harry Bharwal, Imran Nazir, Maroof Merchant (U19), Matiullah Khan, Mohd Afzal, Mujahid Ameen, Omer Farooq, Saqhuib Manshad, Shanawaz Khan, Usman Khan, Vishnu Sukumaran, Zeeshan Abid.
Delhi Bulls – Future Mattress
Umair Ali Khan (c), Adil Mirza, Zawar Farid, Shakoor Khan, Ali Shan (U19), Nilansh Keshwani (U19), Mohammed Usman, Sardar Bahzad, Waseem Bari, Syed Haider, Zahid Ali, Sabir Rao, Sultan Ahmed, Zohaib Zubair, Qamar Awan, Tahir Lateef.
Northern Warriors – Defenders
Muhammad Yasir Maharvi (c), Wajid Khan, Yasir Kaleem, Taimoor Bhatti, Muhammad Sharam Faisal, Hamad Arshad (U19), Sandeep Singh, Abdur Rehman, Imran OD, Farhan Babar, Asif Mumtaz, Karnal Zahid, Farhan Ahmed, Saqib Mahmood, Rizwan Amanat, Salman Babar.
Deccan Gladiators – MGM
Adeel Malik (c), Ansar Khan, Rahul Chopra, Danish Quereshi, Hassan Khan (U19), Aayan Khan, Waqas Ali, Hameed Khan, Muhammad Hassan, Laxman Manjrekar, Mohd Kaleem, Ahmad Shafiq, Umar Hafeez, Saifullah Noor, Malik Ghulam Mustafa, Mayank Chaudhary.
Ajman Heroes
Adnan Ul Mulk Nawab (c), Adnan Arif, Shahrukh Sheikh, Faizan Sheikh, Dawood Ejaz, Amjad Gul, Khalid Shah, Luqman Luki, Sanchit Sharma, Gopa Kumar, Hafeez Rehman, Aaryan Lakra, Faisal Baig, Adnaan Khan.