The Qatar national cricket team is the team that represents Qatar in international cricket. The team is organised by the Qatar Cricket Association, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1999 and an associate member in 2017.

Qatar made its international debut in 1979, at an invitational tournament that also included Bahrain, Kuwait, and Sharjah (one of the United Arab Emirates). The team's first Asian Cricket Council (ACC) event was the 2002 ACC Trophy in Singapore. For a period during the 2000s, Qatar was one of the top-ranked non-Test teams in Asia – at the 2004 ACC Trophy, the team placed fourth. However, a few years later it was relegated to the second-division ACC events.

Qatar made its first and only World Cricket League (WCL) appearance at the 2017 ICC World Cricket League Division Five event in South Africa. It placed third, enough to secure the team a place in the new 2019–21 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League.

History

International competition

Qatar's international debut came in 2002 at the ACC Trophy, where they failed to progress beyond the first round. A major improvement came in the next tournament in 2004 when they came fourth. This qualified them for the final pre-qualifying tournament for the 2005 ICC Trophy, played in Malaysia in early 2005. They finished fourth in that tournament, thereby dropping off the road to qualification to the 2007 World Cup. They once again competed at the ACC Trophy in 2006, this time finishing in eighth place. They will play in the new Champions division of that tournament in 2008.[]

2018–present

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

Qatar made its Twenty20 International debut on 21 January 2019, defeating Saudi Arabia by 4 wickets in the 2019 ACC Western Region T20 at Al Emarat Cricket Stadium, Muscat, Oman.

21 January 2019
09:30
Scorecard
Saudi Arabia
126 (20 overs)
v
Qatar
127/6 (15.3 overs)
Sajid Cheema 47 (41)
Tamoor Sajjad 3/11 (4 overs)
Faisal Javed 43 (26)
Muhammad Nadeem 3/16 (3 overs)
Qatar won by 4 wickets
Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, Muscat
Umpires: Rahul Asher (Oma) and Vinod Babu (Oma)
Player of the match: Tamoor Sajjad (Qat)
  • Qatar won the toss and elected to field.
  • First ever T20I match for Qatar.