The victorious Galfar Al Misnad players and officials pose for a photograph after winning the Qatar Cricket Association 50 overs tournament.
Galfar Al Misnad, arguably the best cricket club in Qatar almost made a clean sweep of trophies in the recently-concluded domestic season.
The club, led my talismanic Qatar vice-captain Mohammad Rizlan, made it to all the four finals last season winning the trophy on three occasions.
Galfar Al Misnad completed hat-trick of titles in the season last month when they clinched the popular Ramadan Twenty20 tournament, thrashing Malabar XI by eight wickets in the final.
They had earlier won Qatar Cricket Association’s One-Day Tournament and shared the Qatar Airways One-Day trophy after the final was tied.
Galfar’s players like Rizlan, fast bowler Tamoor Sajjad and seasoned batsman Kamran Khan have often been winning awards in the domestic tournaments for their individual performance. The team’s winning percentage in 2017 remained over 90 percent.
Currently, four Galfar players - Rizlan, Tamoor, M Iqbal, Kamran are also representing Qatar’s national team.
Captain Rizlan terms the success of the club ‘a result of solid backing from the management and team work’.
“It wasn’t easy to dominate the season like this but our hardwork and dedication paid off,” Rizlan told The Peninsula in an interview.
“ The competition is not like before and it is getting tougher after every season. The clubs have started importing quality players which is making the challenge even more difficult.”
Rizlan said the success was not possible without the support of top management of the club.
“We are lucky to have a very supporting management which keeps on motivating the players to take out the best results. The club has own cricket field and net facilities. We are among the few teams to have own nets facilities under lights. We also have modern equipment like bowling machine and advanced gym facilities.
“Our coaching team led by seasoned Saman Fonseka (head coach) is very competent.
“I would like to specially thank Satish G Pillai (Executive Director) for his tremendous support. Without his support and encouragement this success wasn’t possible at all.
Rizlan informed that the Galfar Al Misnad will be travelling to Sri Lanka for their offseason training camp.
“The management has planned an extensive training tour of Sri Lanka to prepare us for the next season. The players will attend training sessions under the supervision of qualified coaches like Chaminda Vass, Ruwan Kalpage, Rumesh Kaluwitharane and Roshan Mahanama.
Meanwhile, Rizlan also lauded the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) for raising standards of the game in Qatar.
“QCA is doing a great job to uplift cricket in the country. Our maiden victory in the ICC tournament in Thailand (in April) was the result of constant endeavour by the QCA management,” he said.
