Bahrain’s first attempt to qualify in the ICC T20 World Cup was a memorable one. They made history by playing against a test-playing nation like Ireland. In its three group matches, it won two – against Germany, and against the United Arab Emirates. UAE, a relatively strong team, went on to win the qualifiers alongside Ireland and will play in Australia. This shows the abundance of talent our team has.
Bahrain narrowly missed qualification for the semi-finals on net run-rate after finishing level on points in their group with Ireland and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain walloped the Philippines, winning by a massive 91-run margin, to secure a place in the play-off – necessary for seeding and international ranking purposes but unfortunately lost to Canada in the fifth place play-offs. Bahrain’s campaign in Oman was a well-fought one and the team deserves all the credit for all that it has managed to achieve in this short period of time.
“This was an amazing accomplishment,” Bahrain Cricket Federation (BCF) president Hatim Dadabai said. “To beat a team like the UAE that just beat Ireland and which is ranked so high in the table; that has had a professional cricketing structure for years is absolutely wonderful. We came very close to qualifying for the World Cup so we know we can do it – and we will, next year!”
BCF advisory board chairman Mohammad Mansoor was also upbeat about the team’s performance, despite Bahrain losing out on a semi-final berth by a whisker.
“That’s the nature of the game – one side wins, the other loses,” he said. “But we did exceptionally well and we’ll do even better next time.”
Mansoor said there were major plans in the works to organise cricket activity extremely professionally from the ground up.
“All of this is being made possible by the support and interest of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa,” he said.