Thursday 13 / March / 2025
Muscat: Studies shouldn’t be given up for sports and a balance needs to be struck when trying to do both, said Sufyan Mahmood, the only Omani cricketer in Oman’s National Cricket Team.
He recalled, “When I was in school and college, my parents did not support me as much, as they were apprehensive about my studies and thought I wouldn’t do well if I focused too much on cricket. However as I progressed, I knew I had to put in that extra effort if I actually wanted to do both, otherwise I would have to stop either one.”
Sufyan never failed a test and continued to play cricket, along with studying, “In one semester at college, I took six modules where only three or four were allowed, but I did that because I wanted to go for a cricket tour the next month, so I would have had to skip the entire semester.”
His interest in cricket developed when he was a child and he would play cricket with his older brother at a park near their house. From there he moved onto to play for the school team and finally entered the Oman national under-17 team when he was 14 years old.
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He was soon promoted to the senior team and Sufyan’s career high came when Oman played against the United Arab Emirates in the Asia Cup, where he managed to grab a wicket with only scoring a few runs against it.
“There were so many congratulatory messages after that and I was also live on TV, so that was huge for me.”
Sufyan said his family has been his biggest support ever since they qualified for the World Cup. “When the team qualified for the World Cup, from that day till date, my parents have never doubted my abilities in cricket and let me practice and play as much as I want to.”
After graduation, Sufyan worked at a large event management company in Oman and played cricket at the same time. However, when the company did not let him go for the World Cup qualifiers, he faced a decision, to either play cricket or work; he chose work and resigned, taking a huge leap of faith.
To Sufyan’s delight, the team qualified for the World Cup. “Although my father was unhappy, he supported me with the resignation. At one point I told my father that imagine if the team qualifies and your son is not in it, and I think that made him think and he let me move forward.”
Sufyan is an all-rounder in the Omani cricket team and although he doesn’t have a player he idolises, he likes to watch Angelo Matthews from Sri Lanka, Yuvraj Singh from India and Shahid Afridi from Pakistan in action.
Along with family and friends, some of his biggest support came from having great mentors around him. “I want to thank coaches Mazhar, Aslam, Asim and Ikhtiar Kasmi.”
He also appreciates the role of the Oman Cricket Board and under their leadership, the team has seen tremendous changes, said Sufyan. “The cricket board with Kanak Khimji, Pankaj Khimji and Madhu Jesrani are brilliant and I want to thank them all; Coach Duleep Mendis has done great things for the team. We now have a turf ground with floodlights and its lovely.”
Sufyan, who grew up watching Adnan Ilyas playing for Oman, wants to now promote the game among more Omanis in the country, “Lots of Omanis ask me about the game, especially since we qualified for the World Cup, they are taking an interest and it’s brilliant to see that.”
"Sufyan, who has a fulltime job with FairTrade, a FMCG distribution company in Oman, grew up watching Adnan Ilyas, who was a very popular cricketer of team Oman. He now wants to now promote the game among more Omanis in the country, “Lots of Omanis ask me about the game especially ever since we qualified for the world cup, they are taking interest and it’s brilliant to see that.
"Apart from the national team, Sufyan also plays for Enhance A Team and OCT Seeb, he appreciates the role of several Omanis who have come into the field of cricketing and are trying to develop the infrastructure and opportunities for more Omani to play the game.
This young cricketer works hard to maintain his diet and to stay fit, he follows a tough routine- “I wake up and go to a National team training session at 5am, and get back home by 7am, after that I head to office by 8am and get back by 1.30pm. At 2.30, we have another cricket practice from where I get back by about 6pm. After that I enjoy sometime at the gym and pool near my place and come back by 9pm. I am too tired to do anything after this, so I go home and sleep.”
