Oman Cricket chairman opens up on how Cyclone Shaheen almost spoiled their plans of hosting the T20 WC

Oman is set to co-host the upcoming T20 WC along with UAE. However, ahead of the start of the marquee event the country had to deal with a massive blow that would have led to Oman missing out on hosting the high-profile event. Cyclone Shaheen hit the country wherein eleven people lost their lives.

Heavy winds and rain swept through the country as the cyclone made landfall in Oman. The Oman Cricket Chairman Pankaj Khimji asserted that they were fortunate enough to have missed the worst of the storms. He pointed that had the cyclone taken a different route, the country wouldn’t have been able to host the World Cup. The Chairman also added that the intense rain had made the outfield even greener now.

“We were so close to being virtually wiped out. We had the cyclone only a few nautical miles north. It made landfall there and it devastated that whole region and flooded the whole plain over there. Had this happened over here in this area, I’d have said ‘Goodbye’ to the World Cup. We got about three to four inches of rain. And that made the ground even lusher and greener, it looks even prettier now. It washed off all the dirt and sand,” asserted Pankaj Khimji as reported by India Today.

T20 WC coming to Oman is gigantic: Pankaj Khimji

The T20 WC was scheduled to take place in India. However owing to the uncertainties of the ongoing pandemic, it was moved to UAE and Oman. The latter will host six Group B matches at Al Amerat near Muscat. Khimji expressed his happiness on Oman hosting the tournament. He stated that hosting and playing the World Cup is like living a dream.

“This cricket coming to Oman is gigantic. To think that there will be tens of millions of people watching the first game, it’s overwhelming to an extent. How often will an associate country get a chance to host and play in the World Cup at the same time? This is unreal, I’m living a dream,” the chairman added.

Zeeshan Maqsood will be captaining the side in the tournament. Khimji thus pinned his hopes on the team to go well in the World Cup.

“They have been fantastic. These are rank amateurs, they have a job which they do nine-to-five, and they’ve taken a month or two off just to compete in this World Cup,” Khimji said.