UAE Cricket announces addition of domestic ten-over competition

Emirates Cricket today announced the creation of the D10 competition, a domestic ten over tournament within the United Arab Emirates that will begin on the weekend.

The competition will stretch for 34 games over two weeks with six teams competing throughout the tournament.

UAE Vice-Chairman Khalid Al Zarooni spoke of the board’s satisfaction with creating an annual short-format competition in the country.

“We are very pleased to announce this important milestone in the development of our sport. It has always been a vision of the board to develop and add an annual top-tier domestic tournament to the UAE calendar.” 

The competition will be a golden opportunity for players across the Emirates to play at a consistent level with international cricket on temporary standby due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Secretary-General of Emirates Cricket Mubashshir Usmani said that the ten-over competition will add to the portfolio of competitions within the UAE.

“The addition of the UAE Domestic D10 bolsters Emirates Cricket’s current portfolio of successful stand-alone 20-over and 50-over tournaments.”

“We are very pleased with the support we have received from the Councils, and thank them for their ongoing support to the success and viability of the D10 tournament, one we aim to have as a permanent fixture in our calendar.“

The six sides competing in the competition will compromise of the four original UAE domestic sides Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman alongside two teams formed by the UAE board called the “Emirates Blues” supposedly compromising of a mix of junior and senior players within the UAE cricket set up.

ITW Consulting was announced by the Emirates board as the main commercial partner of the tournament just days after also announcing their partnership with Ireland Cricket as the main shirt sponsor of the Irish cricket team.

A Dubai based company, the consulting group were present at the press conference announcing the tournament with CEO and Co-Founder Bhairav Shanth speaking to the media about his companies involvement with the Emirates Cricket Board.

“As a commercial partner, ITW is trying to make this league reach to as many people as possible… We are taking this cricket to everywhere we can imagine. We are taking this across the globe,” said Shanth.

The tournament will be live-streamed over two weeks with several broadcast partners across the globe. With streams being picked up by several companies across Asia with an emphasis on India and Pakistan.