Bahrain

Cricket has been played in Bahrain since the early 20th century. The earliest instance of Cricket was recorded in 1932 when a match was played between Royal British Airforce and Royal British Navy. In 1935, the Awali Cricket Club was formed by the then British Oil Company which is now BAPCO – Bahrain Petroleum Company. The Bahraini national side made its first international appearance in 1979, at an invitational tournament with Kuwait, Qatar, and Sharjah (one of the United Arab Emirates).

Its first appearance in an Asian Cricket Council tournament came at the 2004 ACC Trophy in Malaysia; since then, Bahrain has regularly appeared in ACC events. Bahrain has also made several appearances in World Cricket League tournaments, but was relegated back to regional tournaments after finishing fifth at the 2013 Division Six event.

In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Bahrain and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 will be full T20Is. Bahrain made its Twenty20 International debut on 20 January 2019, defeating Saudi Arabia by 41 runs in the 2019 ACC Western Region T20 at Al Emarat Cricket Stadium, Muscat, Oman.