Awali Cricket Club turns 80

Awali Cricket Club (ACC), with the support of Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), today begins a three-day festival of cricket to celebrate its 80th Anniversary as the oldest cricket club of its kind in both Bahrain and the GCC.

The weekend programme was announced by ACC president Raman Rao with coordinator Ashwani Sharma. According to the schedule, Awali All Stars 1 will play a touring Etihad Airways team from Abu Dhabi today – a side captained by former club member Sreekant Bhavadasan and managed by Mohammed Zaheer.

They will face off in a T20 match starting 12.30pm today at Awali Oval. All Stars 1 squad for today’s match comprises captain Mohammed Ishtiaq, Sanjay Rathod, Ahmed Ismail, Deepak Nair, Prachur Shukla, Jose Xavier, Soji Mathew, Vaibavh Rathod, Muzzamil Majeed, Vijay Sailor, Mazin Khan and Lloyd Coutino.

Tomorrow, Awali Camels captained by Sanjay Rathod with take on the visitors in a 50-over match from 8am.

The final match on Saturday features Awali All Stars 2 captained by Hemanta K Borah in a 30-over match starting from 7.30am.

ACC, over the years, has welcomed many cricket legends such as Brian Lara, Kapil Dev, John Emburey, Hanif Mohammed, Mushtaq Mohammed, Syed Kirmani and its honorary patron Freddie Trueman.

Caption : Bapco Awali Cricket Club Archive set 1 from 1957 (Flickr)