About Oman Cricket

The Oman national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Oman and is governed by the Oman Cricket Board, which became an Affiliate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2000, and gained Associate status in 2014. The national side has played matches at Twenty20 International level. On 24 April 2019, Oman achieved One-Day International status for the first time until 2022, after they beat tournament hosts Namibia by four wickets in 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.

Oman's first competitive matches came at the 2002 ACC Trophy, and the side has since participated in many Asian Cricket Council tournaments, finishing runner-up in the 2004 ACC Trophy and twice winning the ACC Twenty20 Cup. Oman has participated in ICC World Cup Qualifier without qualifying for the final tournament, placing ninth at the 2005 ICC Trophy and eleventh at the 2009 World Cup Qualifier. In July 2015, with their win against Namibia in the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, Oman gained Twenty20 International status and qualified for 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India, its first major international tournament

In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Oman and other ICC Members after 1 January 2019 will be a full T20I.

Most cricket in Oman is played by expatriate Indians and Pakistanis (and their descendants), rather than by native Omanis – in 2010, only 100 of the 780 players in the national league were Arabs, or around 13 percent. The composition of the Omani national side has generally reflected this, although several Arabs have appeared for the team. Quotas of Arab players have been introduced for both club teams and the national side, in order to boost cricket's popularity amongst the Arab population.

Compared to other Associate nations Oman have been incredibly consistent and have been the quickest team in terms of rising performance. The Oman Team had been participating in Division 5, against small teams like Tanzania, Nigeria etc. just in 2016. They had also only become an associate member in 2014. But already now in 2020, they have become an established ODI nation, and one of the strongest associate teams in cricket. In 6 years they have established themselves with T20I Status, won through all divisions, participated in a World T20, and gained ODI Status. It is an incredible achievement of doing all of these difficult things in a small time.