QRHCF President Youssef Jaham Al Kuwari
In a country where football is the first love, promoting sports like cricket, hockey and rugby is a big task.
But the man at the helm of these games - Youssef Jaham Al Kuwari is upbeat about making them among the major games in Qatar.
The Qatar Rugby, Hockey and Cricket Federation (QRHCF) was formed as a result of an overhaul by the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), which saw several sports federations being merged last December. Youssef Jaham was elected as the president of the then newly-formed QRHCF in January.
Since then, he breathed a new life into these three games by hosting major international events and backing the respective domestic and national teams.
The Qatar cricket team, which is currently in Thailand for ICC World Cricket League Asia Division 1, had extensive months of training while in rugby, Qatar has been hosting various events including the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy 2017 which saw top teams of Asia in action.
The QRHCF under Youssef Jaham is now hosting the Indoor Asia Cup Hockey Championship – with top 10 teams of the continent fighting for men’s and women’s crowns simultaneously at Aspire from today. Qatar is holding the championship for the first time.
“It’s a big challenge to run the three federations but we are doing our best,” Youssef Jaham told The Peninsula.
“We have a good team which is eager to promote cricket, hockey and rugby and I am confident we will take the three sports to the next level.
“Apart from hosting events, we are working on a plan for further betterment and improve the standards of Qatar’s teams in these games,” Youssef Jaham added.
While QRHCF is working to promote all the three sports, the president said especial emphasis is being laid to cricket – the most popular sports in South Asia.
“We have big ambitions in cricket - from hosting major teams to building our own national team of top level.
“ We are planning to host big international teams like India, Pakistan and England.”
He noted that, among the three sports under his body, cricket is the most popular.
“Cricket is very popular game in Qatar. We have 64 domestic teams which is more than the other sports we are taking care of. Besides, the game has a huge fan base in the country.
“This is a sport which is growing globally. It also has a chance to become part of Olympics and we will do our best to promote the game domestically and internationally. We will also do our best to have a formidable team and improve our International Cricket Council rankings.”
The QRHCF president admitted that promoting hockey was a bigger task for his body.
“ Hockey is not among the most popular sports in the country but it is growing. This sport need more efforts and we need more local players to be involved with the game. But, this sport is entertaining and it has a lot of potential.
“We are trying to rope in more teams and our federation is also in talks with the QOC over astroturf and other facilities,” he said before adding that the game of rugby was on track.
“ A lot is being done for rugby also, We are hosting domestic and international tournaments in rugby also.”
