Cricket is set to resume in Malaysia with the Malaysian T10 Bash on August 7-9. The three-day tournament will be held at the iconic Kinrara Oval and will feature four teams — the Central Smashers, Southern Hitters, Northern Strikers, and Western Warriors — each with squads of 15-16 of the country’s top players.
The last time Malaysia’s cricketers were in action was five months ago at the ACC Eastern Region T20 tournament, where they finished 3rd, narrowly missing out on a place at the now postponed Asia Cup Qualifiers. Despite this disappointment, their recent form in T20 cricket has been encouraging with a victory over Nepal at the ACC Easterns as well as a 5-0 drubbing of Hong Kong just prior to the tournament.
In a conversation with Emerging Cricket, Mahinda Vallipuram, President of the Malaysia Cricket Association (MCA) shared his enthusiasm surrounding the T10 format, suggesting that the Bash could be staged annually going forward.
“Malaysia Cricket wants to celebrate the return to cricket with a league that our National Pool players and the fraternity can participate in. It has been a long period of lockdown, and it is great that we have received approvals to restart.
“We want to be cautious in our approach and the T10 format ticks the boxes. We have discussed internally before about having T10 tournaments and this has given us the opportunity to have the first national T10 tournament, which I’m sure will become a yearly event. It would help us further to build fan engagement and the brand.
“Saying that, we will definitely be looking to finish our domestic leagues, which include T20 and 50 overs in the coming months. These formats remain a focus as pathway events.”
The tournament will be played in adherence to Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) around social distancing. Among the requirements are ensuring players wear face masks before and after the games, avoid handshakes, avoid the sharing of equipment and clothing, and mandating that players, staff and officials download the MySejahtera mobile application for contact tracing.
While the return of domestic cricket gives supporters of Malaysian cricket something to smile about, Vallipuramstressed that the return of international cricket would depend on the trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic and approvals by the Ministry of Youth and the National Security Council.
With neighbors Singapore also getting the spread of the disease under relative control, there is a chance that the annual cross-border competitions between the two — the Saudara Cup and the women’s equivalent The SaudariCup — could take place this year.
The Bash will be streamed live on the MCA’s official Facebook page and their YouTube channel. Alternatively, North American viewers can watch the action live on Willow TV, while Indian viewers can tune in via the FanCode App.
Fixtures (all times in GMT +8):
August 7 [Friday]
5:00 PM – Central Smashers v Western Warriors
7:40 PM – Northern Strikers v Southern Hitters
August 8 [Saturday]
11:00 AM – Southern Hitters v Central Smashers
1:40 PM – Western Warriors v Northern Strikers
5:00 PM – Central Smashers v Northern Strikers
7:40 PM – Southern Hitters v Western Warriors
August 9 [Sunday]
11:00 AM – Semi Final 1 (1st Place v 4th Place)
1:40 PM – Semi Final 2 (2nd Place v 3rd Place)
5:00 PM – 3rd Place Playoff (Loser of SF1 v Loser of SF 2)
7:40 PM – Final (Winner of SF 1 v Winner of SF 2)
Sqauds
Central Smashers
Ahmad Faiz Mohammed Noor (capt), Anwar Arudin, Norwira Zazmie, Mohsan Idrees, Abdullah Shahid, Amir Khan Malik, Ammar Zuhdi Hazalan, Janidu Himsara, Shankar Sathish, Pavandeep Singh, Suharril Fetri Shuib, Sumanth Kadri Suuvarna, Akbar Ali, Rizwan Haider, Wan Amirul Zulkarnain
Coach: Asif Ali
Southern Hitters
Virandeep Singh (capt), Bhushan Save, Saifullah Malik, Aminuddin Ramly, Rehan Mahmood, Hashim Islam, Ainool Haqqiem Yatim, Muhammad Gulraiz, SachinuHettige, Amir Azim Shukor, Vijay Unni, Syazrul EzatIdrus, Md Sulaiman Ali, Haider Ali, Kevin Dulaj Perera
Coach: Prasad Priyankara
Northern Strikers
Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak (capt), Ahmad Zubaidi, AriffJamaluddin, Ainool Hafiz Yatim, Chandan Kumar, Imam Roshan, Harinderjit Singh, Nazril Rahman, Rashid Ahad, Anwar Rahman, Mohsin Zaman, Zahid Fazal, Arif Ullah, Charan Kumar, Syaqir Suhaimei, Shukri Rahim
Coach: Thushara Kodikara
Western Warriors
Fitri Sham (capt), Aslam Khan Malik, Danyal Hafeez, Rohit Vyas, Attiq Ur Rehman, Faiz Nasir, DhivendranMogan, Shafiq Sharif, Sharvin Muniandy, Aaryan Amin Premj, Sharveen Surendran, Raj Kumar Rajendran, JerinRaj Pankiras, Abdul Rauf, Hakim Harisan, Arief Yusof
Coach: Damith Kushan
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