Great achievement to host T20 World Cup: Oman Cricket boss Pankaj Khimji

With the Covid19 pandemic forcing the shifting of the T20 World Cup from India to the United Arab Emirates the region which was primarily known as a neutral playing venue has gained huge momentum as it gears up to host its firstever ICC eventAlong with UAE the BCCI also pitched for matches to be played at Oman Cricket Academys picturesque ground at Al Amerat which is close to Muscat their capital city The ground also recently got Test status from the ICCOman came into contention as the fourth venue to primarily accommodate qualifying matchesThe eight nations to make the cut for the qualifying matches are Sri Lanka Bangladesh Oman Ireland Netherlands Scotland Namibia and Papua New Guinea The top four teams will make it to the Stage of 12 to play against the Top Eight teams which have directly qualified based on their world rankingsWhile it is not clear whether Oman will share some qualifying matches with UAE Oman Cricket chief Pankaj Khimji is thrilled to be the only associate nation to host an ICC event for the first timeIts a fantastic feeling Its a great achievement for an associate nation We are delighted We are playing the T20 World Cup for the second time now after the 2016 T20 World Cup in India We are the only Asian associate nation to make it to the T20 World Cup qualifiers So its quite an achievement Khimji told middaycom on TuesdayWhen the BCCI was contemplating to move the T20 World Cup to Dubai we requested them that if you can play matches in Dubai then why not in Muscat They the BCCI were magnanimous in considering our request We are happy that we will be playing our qualification matches at home We will have the home turf advantage I hope it will go well for us Khimji addedWith just three months left for the tournament that gets underway from October 17 to November 14 cohosts Omans challenge will be to prepare two extra dressing rooms considering the Covid19 precautions and erect makeshift stands to accommodate around 5000 fansFrom a preparation point of view we have a fantastic infrastructure We have got floodlights Considering Covid we will have to build extra dressing rooms as there will be not much time with the teams playing the second game since we have got to sanitise the dressing rooms after every game We will put up big screens and we have got to build a certain infrastructure for the television camerasWe have got enough time for that Apart from that we are pretty ready Our turf is one of the best said KhimjiWe will try to get 3000 to 5000 fans for the games By end of August we should have inoculated at least twothird of our population So from a Covid19 perspective we believe October is safe enough to host the matchesAs far as the ground is concerned all the ground staff and everyone involved will be vaccinated We will have a very safe surrounding Also the hotel will be carefully chosen and they will all be in a safe bubble said Khimji who has been in touch with the BCCI officials for the last few weeksThe biggest high for Khimji is having Oman on the world cricketing mapIt really puts Oman on the global cricketing map It also showcases the beautiful country to cricket fans I hope this will put Oman as a destination for travel business and cricketing extravaganza I hope this will be the first of many cricketing events for Oman Khimji signed offAlso Read Ishant and Pratima take a trip to Stonehenge with Mayank and Aashita