Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), the cricketing governing body of United Arab Emirates (UAE), has decided to organise the second edition of T10 League in this calendar year with two more new teams. It means that a total 8 teams will participate in the 2018 T10 League.
Six teams had participated in the inaugural edition of T10 League that had been organised from 14-17 December 2017 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The six teams were Kerala Kings, Maratha Arabians, Pakhtoon Team, Punjabi Legends, Team Sri Lanka and Bengal Tigers. Many star international cricketers had featured in that tournament like Virender Sehwag (only Indian cricketer in that tournament), Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Eoin Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Chandimal, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo etc.
Kerala Kings had won that inaugural tournament after beating Punjabi Legends in the final of the tournament.
After the successful inaugural season, the UAE cricket board has decided to carry on this tournament despite having a busy cricketing schedule in the country in 2018. Talking about the busy cricketing schedule in UAE, apart from organising Pakistan’s international home fixtures as well as the inaugural Afghanistan Premier League, UAE is also set to organize this year’s Asia Cup.
Apart from those six teams, Karachians (from Pakistan) and Northern Warriors (based on India) are joining the second season of this shortest cricket tournament. Also, Team Sri Lanka has been renamed as Rajasthani Heroes for the new season.
In the addition, the second season will be extended to 10 days while the first season had been scheduled for only four days. Also, the tournament is expecting to be played in November this year.
In the press conference, the T10 League Chairman Shaji Ul Mulk claimed, “We see no competitors, really. T10 was the only tournament that had all packed stadiums [last winter].”
“Our vision is to see T10 become an integral part of domestic and international cricket all over the world. We are discussing with various full member country boards to take T10 to all these countries.
“On a domestic front, Ajman Cricket Council has just concluded two T10 tournaments, and feedback from the teams is very encouraging.”
The league President Salman Iqbal believes that the T10 cricket can be a part of future Olympics.
He said on that, “We faced challenges when we first launched as players were hesitant to sign on because of the last private cricket venture to be staged in UAE, the Masters Champions League. However, in just one year, T10 has proven itself. If the interest continues to grow at this rate, we might even take cricket to the Olympics.”
