Oman national cricket team


The Oman national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Oman and is governed by the Oman Cricket Board, which became an Affiliate Member of the International Cricket Council in 2000, and gained Associate status in 2014. The national side has played matches at Twenty20 International level.
On 24 April 2019, Oman achieved One-Day International status for the first time until 2022, after they beat tournament hosts Namibia by four wickets in 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.
Oman's first competitive matches came at the 2002 ACC Trophy, and the side has since participated in many Asian Cricket Council tournaments, finishing runner-up in the 2004 ACC Trophy and twice winning the ACC Twenty20 Cup. Oman has participated in ICC World Cup Qualifier without qualifying for the final tournament, placing ninth at the 2005 ICC Trophy and eleventh at the 2009 World Cup Qualifier. In July 2015, with their win against Namibia in the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, Oman gained Twenty20 International status and qualified for 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, its first major international tournament
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Oman and other ICC Members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I.
Most cricket in Oman is played by expatriate Indians and Pakistanis, rather than by native Omanis – in 2010, only 100 of the 780 players in the national league were Arabs, or around 13 percent. The composition of the Omani national side has generally reflected this, although several Arabs have appeared for the team. Quotas of Arab players have been introduced for both club teams and the national side, in order to boost cricket's popularity amongst the Arab population.
Compared to other Associate nations Oman have been incredibly consistent and have been the quickest team in terms of rising performance. The Oman Team had been participating in Division 5, against small teams like Tanzania, Nigeria etc. just in 2016. They had also only become an associate member in 2014. But already now in 2020, they have become an established ODI nation, and one of the strongest associate teams in cricket. In 6 years they have established themselves with T20I Status, won through all divisions, participated in a World T20, and gained ODI Status. It is an incredible achievement of doing all of these difficult things in a small time.

History

Early years and ICC Membership

Oman became an affiliate member of the ICC in 2000. Their senior international debut came at the 2002 ACC Trophy where they failed to progress beyond the first round, with their only win coming against Qatar. A huge improvement was shown in the 2004 tournament when they reached the final, where they lost against the United Arab Emirates. This qualified them for the 2005 ICC Trophy, the final qualification stage for the 2007 World Cup. It also qualified them for the Asia Cup in 2006. Later in 2004, they won the Middle East Cup after a tied game against Bahrain. They won the tournament as they beat Bahrain in the group stage. In the 2014 ACC Premier League in Malaysia they reached 4th place with three wins.

2005 ICC Trophy and aftermath

In 2005, Oman became the first affiliate member of the ICC to compete in the ICC Trophy. Despite being the mystery men of the tournament, they lost all their group games, but then won their play-off games against Uganda and the USA, the latter when they successfully chased down a mammoth target of 345, featuring an unbroken 127-run partnership for the eighth wicket. This gave them ninth place out of the twelve teams in the competition, enough to earn a place in Division Two of the ICC World Cricket League in 2007.
2006 saw a drop in form for Oman, as they were eliminated in the first round of the ACC Trophy, with their only win coming against the Maldives. As mentioned above, they were originally scheduled to participate in the Asia Cup in 2006, playing their first ODIs against Pakistan and India. However this tournament was postponed until 2008, and the ACC decided to use the 2006 ACC Trophy as a qualification tournament, meaning that Oman's place was taken by Hong Kong.

2007–2013

In October/November 2007, Oman took part 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 the final match against Afghanistan was tied.
In November 2007, Oman travelled to Namibia to take part in Division Two of the ICC World Cricket League. They played Denmark, the hosts and the UAE in addition to the two qualifiers from Division Three; Uganda and Argentina. Although Oman won all their group matches, they lost to the UAE in the final. On the basis of their top four finish in this tournament, Oman qualified for the ICC World Cup Qualifier in 2009, the final tournament in qualification for the 2011 World Cup.
In January 2009, Oman participated in the ACC Cup, Challenge tournament in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They came first with ease, defeating the Maldives and Bhutan in the Semi finals and finals respectively. The fourth favourites to win the cup were hosts, Thailand who ended up in fourth place.
In April 2009, Oman travelled to South Africa to participate in the ICC World Cup Qualifier, the final tournament in qualification for the 2011 World Cup. During the tournament Oman finished last in their group and in the 11th place playoff they beat Denmark by 5 wickets.
In the 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup, Oman were drawn in Group B. In the group stages of the competition it won all five of its games, finishing top of the group and qualifying for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals it lost to the United Arab Emirates, therefore missing out on a chance to win back-to-back titles. In the third place playoff, it defeated Kuwait. This victory enabled Oman to claim the final qualifying spot for the cricket tournament at the 2010 Asian Games. They played in 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, where they came 3rd to remain in 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three.

2014 onwards: Associate Membership and ODI and T20I status

At the ICC Annual Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, in June 2014, the Oman Cricket Board was upgraded from an affiliate member of the ICC to an associate member. That announcement came during the 2014 WCL Division Four, where Oman placed fifth to be relegated to the 2016 Division Five event. Despite the team's poor performance in the 50-over format, Oman went on to win its next major international tournament, the 2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup, thus qualifying for 2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland.
By defeating Namibia in a sudden-death match at the World Twenty20 Qualifier, Oman reached the top six teams at the tournament, thus qualifying for the 2016 World Twenty20 and gaining Twenty20 International status until at least 2019. The team made its T20I debut in the fifth-place play-off against Afghanistan, and later in the year played bilateral T20I series against Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates.
In 2016 Oman appeared at the 2016 World Twenty20 in India where they recorded an upset victory over Ireland.
They also appeared at the 2016 Asia Cup Qualifier.
In January 2017 Oman took part in the 2017 Desert T20 Challenge. They reached the semi-finals of the tournament by beating Hong Kong in the group stages, before being defeated by Afghanistan.
In April 2019, Oman gained ODI status for the first time in history along with United States until 2022.

International grounds

Tournament history

ICC Trophy/ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier

ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier

Oman's squad for 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two from 20-27 April 2019 in Namibia.
International match summary — Oman

One-Day Internationals

Most ODI runs for Oman
PlayerRunsAverageCareer span
Aqib Ilyas62169.002019–2020
Zeeshan Maqsood25328.112019–2020
Khawar Ali24524.502019–2020
Mohammad Nadeem21270.662019–2020
Jatinder Singh18216.542019–2020

Most ODI wickets for Oman
PlayerWicketsAverageCareer span
Zeeshan Maqsood2017.252019–2020
Bilal Khan1821.002019–2020
Aqib Ilyas1612.622019–2020
Khawar Ali1233.412019–2020
Mohammad Nadeem926.002019-2020

ODI record versus other nations
Records complete to ODI #4244. Last updated 11 February 2020.
OpponentMWLTNRFirst matchFirst win
2020027 April 2019
220005 February 20205 February 2020
2200014 August 201914 August 2019
2110015 August 201915 August 2019
110005 January 20205 January 2020
220006 February 20206 February 2020

Twenty20 Internationals

Most T20I runs for Oman
PlayerRunsAverageCareer span
Jatinder Singh69727.882015–2020
Khawar Ali60120.722015-2020
Zeeshan Maqsood54724.862015–2020
Aqib Ilyas40822.662015–2019
Aamir Kaleem35718.782015–2020

Most T20I wickets for Oman
PlayerWicketsAverageCareer span
Bilal Khan5116.252015–2020
Khawar Ali3516.852015–2020
Aamir Kaleem2518.482015–2020
Mohammad Nadeem2421.662015–2020
Zeeshan Maqsood1824.832015–2020

T20I record versus other nations
Records complete to T20I #1058. Last updated 25 February 2020.