Qatar vs Afghanistan 2025 series reclassified as practice matches
Technical issue delayed the first game by over two hours
Fans confused over T20I status and live stream
When the Qatar national cricket team and the Afghanistan national cricket team were due to launch their first-ever bilateral T20I series at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium in Doha, the excitement was palpable. The tour had been promoted as a “men’s T20I bilateral series”, with three matches scheduled for November 8, 9 and 11.
Yet when the first match failed to begin at the advertised 5:30 pm local time and was delayed by two-and-a-half hours after a “technical problem”, the atmosphere shifted to confusion and uncertainty.
At what should have been a landmark moment for Qatari cricket, a first international series against a Test-playing nation, things didn’t go as planned. Qatar’s own association had tweeted in the build-up: “Both of the Qatari and Afghan national teams are set to play in the Qatar–Afghanistan Bilateral Series 2025, taking place at the West End International Cricket Stadium in Doha.”
Also Check: Afghanistan Vs Qatar, 1st T20I Highlights
But hours before the action was due to begin, the Afghanistan Cricket Board clarified that theirs would be an A-team, labelled “Afghan Abdalyan”, and that the fixtures were “T20 practice matches … as part of their preparations for the upcoming Rising Stars Asia Cup 2025”.
Practice Match Status Unsettles International Recognition
The shift from a full-fledged T20 International series to practice matches stirred debate about status and records. If the games had carried official T20I status, it would have marked a major milestone for Qatar’s national side. But with the Afghanistan board’s own statement reclassifying the matches as practice fixtures, the official recognition vanished.
The match page on the International Cricket Council (ICC) site listed the first fixture as “cancelled”, and existing live-stream feeds showed long delays and uncertainty.
Technical Delays and Live Stream Chaos
Supporters tuning in via YouTube were left waiting long after the scheduled start, with comments piling up about the missing feed. Despite the Qatar Cricket Association’s YouTube channel still advertising a “Men’s T20I bilateral series”, the match finally began around 8 pm local time, two and a half hours late, under the banner of a practice game.
Meanwhile, platforms like Sofascore and CricketWorld showed the first match as “cancelled” or non-official, further muddying the record-keeping.
