Morrocco's first home league tournament is a success (3 Sep 1999)

2 September 1999

Morrocco's first home league tournament is a success

The Moroccan Cricket Club has won its second 'title', taking out a triangular tournament against local embassy teams from Great Britain and Pakistan.

Club vice-president, Fatima Boujoual, provides this report:

"The four team cricket tournament arranged by the Moroccan Cricket Club on 19 June 1999 at Rabat was reduced to three teams when the Gibraltar team pulled out at the last minute. The failure of the Gibraltar cricket club could not detract from the importance of the occasion as this was the first time in the history of Moroccan cricket that a league tournament was played in this country. Apart from the Moroccan Cricket Club, the other teams were the Pakistan Eleven captained by H.E.Syed Azmat Hassan, Ambassador of Pakistan to Morocco, and a British Eleven. The tournament was contested in the picturesque environs of the Moulay Rachid Stadium on a matting wicket.

The first match between the Pakistan Eleven and the British Eleven was won by the British team who knocked up the required 89 runs without much difficulty. The second match between the British XI and the Moroccan team was a one sided affair as the British team was skittled out for 45 thanks to excellent medium fast bowling by Abdellatif Bachir who took five wickets. The Moroccan team had no difficulty in scoring the requisite runs. Abdellatif Bachir who opened the innings scored a handsome 24 with the aid of three boundaries. Bachir was undoubtedly the man of the match. The Moroccan captain Amine Mejjati was the second highest scorer with 12 runs. The young Moroccan team therefore clearly marked their ascendancy over the British team. In the third and final match, the Moroccan team also beat the Pakistani team in spite of good batting efforts by Iqbal Channer (21), Nadeem Ahmed(13) the captain Syed Azmat Hassan (12 not out), which enabled the Pakistani to rattle up 83 runs. The Moroccan side fresh from their triumph against their British opponents had their tails up and were able to surpass the Pakistanis score, aided by excellent batting by Moujane (17) and Younes Abbasi(14) for the loss of seven wickets.

Morocco thus won the tournament and was awarded the first prize by Abdullah Benhsaine, President of "Stade Marocain", the umbrella sports organization of which the Moroccan cricket club is a member. This is the second big win for the Moroccan cricket Club as they also won the Morocco Pakistan Friendship Trophy in 1997. The league tournament did a lot to encourage the growth of cricket in Morocco. It showed that with proper encouragement, Morocco is capable of doing well in cricket."