As the Abu Dhabi T10 entered its tenth edition, the stadium that helped make the emirate an international cricket destination is now at the heart of the tournament’s future.
The Abu Dhabi T10’s tenth edition began on November 7 at Zayed Cricket Stadium and runs until November 20. Since May, the tournament has been majority-owned by Abu Dhabi Cricket & Sports Hub (ADCSH), which also operates the stadium, prepares its pitches and manages ticketing. The organisation responsible for the ground now has a controlling stake in the event played on it.
“The tenth edition is a milestone, and it is the first one where the tournament and the stadium sit under one roof. We know this ground and we know this event, and we want every fan who walks in to feel that,” says Matt Boucher, chief executive of both ADCSH and Abu Dhabi T10.
The significance of that relationship becomes clearer when viewed against the ground’s history. And one innings provides a memorable starting point.
On November 2, 2014, Misbah-ul-Haq, a batter better known for patience than speed, reached a Test hundred off 56 balls against Australia in Abu Dhabi. It equalled Viv Richards’ then-record for the fastest century in Test cricket.
Misbah’s innings was one of several memorable moments that helped establish Abu Dhabi’s place in international cricket. But the story began a decade earlier, with a stadium built for a game that would increasingly need somewhere to call home.
Zayed Cricket Stadium staged its first match on November 17, 2004, an Intercontinental Cup fixture between Scotland and Kenya. Its first Test followed in November 2010, between Pakistan and South Africa. “The stadium was developed with only cricket in mind,” says Boucher.
Pakistan needed an alternative home after the attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in March 2009, and for much of the following decade Abu Dhabi became a regular venue for its international cricket.
When other plans fell through, Abu Dhabi was often part of the solution. In 2014, the IPL moved its opening leg to the UAE because of the Indian general elections, with Abu Dhabi sharing matches with Dubai and Sharjah. In 2020, when the pandemic kept the competition out of India, Zayed Cricket Stadium staged 20 IPL matches, including the opening game. According to Boucher, the venue hosted 139 bilateral internationals during the Covid period. During the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, it staged 15 matches, including the first semi-final, in which New Zealand beat England.
The site expanded alongside its fixture list. In August 2022, Abu Dhabi Cricket became ADCSH. Later that month, the Tolerance Oval, a second ground on the site, received ICC accreditation for day-night ODI and T20I cricket. In November 2022, England’s Test squad trained at the facility ahead of its tour of Pakistan.
Boucher says there are 64 clay pitches across the venue’s surfaces, maintained by a team of 15 who begin work at 5am. He says the stadium can be prepared for an international match within five to seven days.
That infrastructure gives the ownership change a practical dimension. With the tournament and venue working within the same organisation, there is scope for more coordinated planning, from pitch preparation and match operations to the spectator experience. It also gives the T10 a more permanent institutional base as it enters its second decade.
Cricket fits into Abu Dhabi’s wider tourism ambitions, too. According to the Department of Culture and Tourism, the emirate welcomed 26.6 million visitors in 2025, with India and the United Kingdom among its leading sources of hotel guests. Both are established cricket markets. Department figures put attendance at last year’s Abu Dhabi T10 at around 100,000.
Boucher has described the ambition as strengthening the T10 “and helping establish Abu Dhabi further as a global destination for cricket and international sport”.
Twenty-two years after Scotland and Kenya played the first match there, Zayed Cricket Stadium has become part of cricket’s international landscape. It has staged Tests, ODIs, T20s and T10, World Cup knockout cricket, an IPL opening night and a record-equalling Test hundred. With the tournament and its home ground now under the same ownership structure, Abu Dhabi T10 enters its second decade with an opportunity to build something more enduring.
In a calendar increasingly crowded with franchise competitions, the challenge is no longer simply to stage a successful tournament, but to give it a distinct and lasting identity. This year’s final begins at 7.45pm local time on November 20.
“Abu Dhabi has shown it can host the biggest occasions in cricket, often at short notice. Our job now is to make the T10 one of them every November,” says Boucher.
Also read: How Abu Dhabi T10 is pushing cricket's boundaries
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