Oman Cricket Eyes $2 Million Upgrade For Its T20 World Cup Venue

Oman Cricket, expected to host the initial matches of the T20 World Cup which will act as qualifier for the main draw, has a task at hand as it looks to upgrade its facilities within three months afte

"At the moment, there is no facility for the crowd. We are looking to build a grandstand with a crowd capacity of 2,000-3,000 fans. That apart, there will be hospitality box/boxes with a capacity of 1000," added Jesrani. The ICC refused to disclose details of how many matches will be held in Oman and in UAE, which is expected to hold the latter stages involving big teams.

"The ICC is likely to take another two weeks to come out with the entire schedule. But as far as the preparations of venues go, there are standard basic requirements that ICC demands and Oman Cricket is aware of it. It is yet to be decided whether both the groups of preliminary phase will play their games in Oman or only one group will play there," said an official aware of the development.

Oman Cricket, however, says that a lot depends on how the Covid-19 situation unfolds over the next three months. The tiny emirate, with a population of just over five million, saw over 2,000 positive cases each on Tuesday and Wednesday with a few deaths as well.

"The situation is not encouraging. We have a night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am. We will have to take into consideration government norms too," added Jesrani.