Emirates Cricket Board’s Domestic D10 tournament’s second edition gears up for thrilling matches from March 24

By K.R. Nayar

Teams from five emirates of the UAE -  Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, and Fujairah, along with the Emirates Blues team will battle for the second title through 33 matches till April 5 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. This action will be relayed live on Fancode in India and streamed live on the Facebook page of mysportseye for the rest of the world.

ECB Blues that won the inaugural Emirates D10 tournament. Photo credit ECB/ITW Sports

The second edition of the Emirates Cricket Board(ECB)’s Domestic ‘D10’ tournament is here again to produce nail-biting and exciting finishes.  The first edition of this event was keenly fought and had produced many exciting moments. The stage is set for another encore at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from March 24.

The top five domestic teams representing UAE’s emirates - Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, and Fujairah as well as an ‘Emirates Blues’ team will battle for the second title through 33 matches till April 5. It was through the first edition of this event held during mid-2020 that the ECB had launched its activities after the Covid pandemic had put an abrupt end to cricket tournaments in the UAE. The first edition was won by ECB Blues beating Fujairah Pacific Ventures through a nail-biting last-ball win in August 2020.  All teams are now gearing up to give their best in this edition.

The second edition will be called 'Fancode Emirates D10 Powered by SKY247.Net’  Emirates Cricket, in partnership with ITW Consulting. Emirates Cricket had launched this event which is now UAE Cricket’s flagship Domestic 10-over tournament. 

The special addition to the second edition is a women's match that will be played before the finals on the same ground (at Sharjah). This is being staged since Emirates Cricket and ITW are keen on developing women’s cricket across the region. This match will be the first such initiative towards building a strong (UAE) Women’s team for the future. This initiative merges well into the ICC’s recently launched ‘100% Cricket’ program and their pledge to build interest and bring one million new women and girls to the game.

Khalid Al Zarooni 

Khalid Al Zarooni, Vice Chairman Emirates Cricket Board even spoke about the importance of women’s cricket while launching the second edition. “On behalf of the board I am very happy to announce the second edition of our Domestic 10-over tournament, the Emirates D10, and we are extremely excited to bring our talented women’s players into our flagship tournament.”
Zarooni, speaking about the success of the first edition, said: “It is of great importance that such an initiative, aimed at profiling and developing our players and our game, has been well received and supported, and we extend our appreciation to ITW Consulting for their ongoing commitment to the growth and sustainability of our domestic game.”  

Zarooni reminded players that the National Selection Committee will be watching this edition just like they did during the first edition with an eye to pick players into the national team.

Dr Tayeb Kamali

Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Selection Committee Chairman, Emirates Cricket commented; “We are delighted that our efforts in conceptualizing and delivering D10 and D20 tournaments have helped discover unique home-grown talent. We have high expectations from these players to develop and perform at both national and international tournaments. We are also very keen to see women in the UAE participate and compete in the inaugural tournament as it provides an excellent platform to continue to fine-tune their skills.” 

The live coverage will help cricket lovers watch some of the talented UAE domestic players in action. Many UAE players had won applause from international cricketers and fans around the world during the recent Abu Dhabi T10 tournament.

Vivek Chandra 

Vivek Chandra, Director ITW Consulting DMCC, who is working hard to ensure that the tournament reaches every part of the world, confirmed that this tournament would be titled  ‘Fancode Emirates D10 Powered by SKY247.Net’. The first edition saw a great response from the global fraternity and commercial brands (and) we are now looking forward to a stable calendar for Emirates D10 in the coming future.

Kamali, expressing delight over the reach of the event, said: “We are delighted to again partner with ITW Consulting and are particularly delighted that the D10 tournament will be live and exclusively-broadcasted on Fancode in India and live streamed on mysportseye-Facebook for the rest of the world. We have on-going conversations to be aired live on E-Life and du platform in UAE; and other well-known platforms in Pakistan, Bangladesh, rest of the Middle East, across the UK and the USA.
”