Cricket in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

is a sport growing in popularity. Saudi Arabia's playing season runs from October to April. There are 149 cricket clubs and a single turf wicket in Saudi Arabia.Asian Cricket: Saudi Arabia
/ref>

History

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

was first referenced in Saudi Arabia in 1960 and was contested by Parish teams. By the 1970s the game became structured and more organised, with associations formed. The game was mostly played by expatriates in its early days and this remains the case today, with the majority of players coming from the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Australia,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In 2001, legal status to organize the game of cricket was attained under the royal patronage of Princess Ghada bint Homoud bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. In 2003, Saudi Arabia became the affiliate member of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the ' ...

. The team has never taken part in an exclusive International Cricket Council tournament, but has played in

Asian Cricket Council The Asian Cricket Council also known as ACC is a cricket organisation which was established in 1983, to promote and develop the sport of cricket in Asia. Subordinate to the International Cricket Council, the council is the continent's regional ...

competitions, most notably the ACC Trophies and the ACC Twenty20 Cups. It was in the 2008 ACC Trophy Elite that they defeated the

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, a country with One Day International experience.

Governing body

Saudi Cricket Centre is the official

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

of cricket in Saudi Arabia. Its current headquarters is in Jeddah. became an Affiliate Member of the International Cricket Council in 2003, and became the 39th Associate Member in 2016.

Domestic competitions

Saudi Arabia's domestic setup involves 11 regional cricket association who play one-day and

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

from October to April.Saudi Arabian Shine in T20
/ref> The 2010 competition was won by Western Province Cricket Association.

Regional Associations

List below are the current 11 city cricket associations that make up Saudi Cricket Centre: *Western Province Cricket Association *Jeddah Cricket Association *Riyadh Cricket Association *Riyadh Cricket League *Eastern Province Cricket Association *Yanbu Al Sinayiah Cricket Association *Aseer Cricket League *Jizan Premier Cricket League *Jizan Region Cricket Association *Madina Cricket League *Madina Cricket Association

Grounds

There are currently 60 cricket grounds in Saudi Arabia. All of these grounds are exclusively prepared for cricket with concrete based permanent pitches on a barren outfield. Only one ground, in

Yanbu Yanbu ( ar, ينبع, lit=Spring, translit=Yanbu'), also known simply as Yambu or Yenbo, is a city in the Al Madinah Province of western Saudi Arabia. It is approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Jeddah (at ). The population is 222,360 (2 ...

, includes a green

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball a ...

, a

clubhouse Clubhouse may refer to: Locations * The meetinghouse of: ** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal ** In the United States, a country club ** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club * A ...

, lights, dressing rooms, toilets and other facilities.

National team

The

Saudi Arabia national cricket team The Saudi Arabia national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Saudi Arabia in international cricket. The Team is organized by the Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket ...

represents the country in

international cricket International cricket matches are played between teams representing their nations, normally organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches. Most games are played ...

matches. The national team, formed in 2003, They play in the Challenge division of the

ACC Trophy The ACC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). Open only to associate and affiliate members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), it was contested biennially between 1996 and 2012, but ha ...

, having previously played in the Elite division prior to relegation in 2008, before that the ACC Trophy before it was split into two divisions. The team has also played in the ACC Twenty20 Cup and the Middle East Cup.

References

External links

SaudiCricket siteSaudi Arabian pages on asiancricket.org
{{National Cricket Articles