ILT20 gets ready for ‘Crickmas Wonderland’ but not all rivalries will be full of festive cheer

The organisers of the DP World International League T20 might have had to shift their new season from their preferred window because of its proximity to the T20 World Cup in February.

But the move to a December-January timeframe, starting on Tuesday night when Dubai Capitals play Desert Vipers in the tournament opener, has brought with it some very obvious benefits.

The matches will start during the National Day week. The back end of the season will also overlap with the Christmas and New Year period, as well as school holidays.

They are well prepped. The fan park outside the stands at Dubai International Stadium has been transformed into a “Crickmas Wonderland”, complete with Christmas tree, decorations, and bunting.

The sense that it is the season of good cheer was accentuated as the leading players gathered together for the pre-tournament photocall on Monday.

Players who are so familiar with each other via the global T20 circuit were all pally again, patting each other on the knee, saying, “Oh, look, here we are again.”

Then Gulbadin Naib got on the microphone and fired the first shots of the new campaign.

He had just been asked about his fondest memories of last season. “Defeating Desert Vipers again and again,” the Afghan all-rounder said, and giggled away to himself.

Sat next to him was the Vipers captain, Lockie Ferguson, who initially looked shocked, then forced a smile through gritted teeth.

Last season had ended amid a large degree of spite, and Gulbadin had been central to it. In the final, Vipers players had mocked the Dubai Capitals all-rounder’s trademark bicep-flexing celebration.

They had been well set to win that fiery contest, before falling foul of one tiny detail: Rovman Powell was spared being given out stumped at a crucial stage of the game because Azam Khan, the Vipers wicketkeeper, had his gloves just in front of the stumps when he took the ball.

The game switched on that moment, the Capitals went on to take the title, and some opposing players had to be separated in the aftermath.

Memories of that will have lingered over the past 10 months. Tom Moody, the Vipers coach, played down the idea that his side will be driven by a desire for revenge in the opener against the Capitals.