Early years and ICC Membership Oman became an affiliate member of the
ICC in 2000. Their senior international debut came at the 2002
ACC Trophy where they failed to progress beyond the first round, with their only win coming against
Qatar. A huge improvement was shown in the 2004 tournament when they reached the final, where they lost against
the United Arab Emirates. This qualified them for the
2005 ICC Trophy, the final qualification stage for the
2007 World Cup. It also qualified them for the
Asia Cup in 2006. Later in 2004, they won the Middle East Cup after a tied game against
Bahrain. They won the tournament as they beat
Bahrain in the group stage. In the
2014 ACC Premier League in
Malaysia they reached 4th place with three wins.
2005 ICC Trophy and aftermath In 2005, Oman became the first affiliate member of the ICC to compete in the
ICC Trophy. Despite being the mystery men of the tournament, they lost all their group games, but then won their play-off games against
Uganda and
the USA, the latter when they successfully chased down a mammoth target of 345, featuring an unbroken 127-run partnership for the eighth wicket. This gave them ninth place out of the twelve teams in the competition, enough to earn a place in
Division Two of the
ICC World Cricket League in 2007. 2006 saw a drop in form for Oman, as they were eliminated in the first round of the ACC Trophy, with their only win coming against
the Maldives. As mentioned above, they were originally scheduled to participate in the Asia Cup in 2006, playing their first ODIs against
Pakistan and
India. However, this tournament was postponed until 2008, and the ACC decided to use the 2006 ACC Trophy as a qualification tournament, meaning that Oman's place was taken by
Hong Kong.
2007–2013 In October/November 2007, Oman took part in the inaugural
ACC Twenty20 Cup held in
Kuwait, where they played in Group A against;
Afghanistan,
Malaysia,
Nepal and
Qatar. Oman finished in the top two of their group and qualified for the semi-final stage. Oman beat
Kuwait in their semi-final, then shared the tournament after the final match against
Afghanistan was tied. In November 2007, Oman travelled to
Namibia to take part in Division Two of the ICC World Cricket League. They played
Denmark,
the hosts and
the UAE in addition to the two qualifiers from
Division Three;
Uganda and
Argentina. Although Oman won all their group matches, they lost to the UAE in the final. On the basis of their top four finish in this tournament, Oman qualified for the
ICC World Cup Qualifier in 2009, the final tournament in qualification for the
2011 World Cup. In January 2009, Oman participated in the ACC Cup, Challenge tournament in
Chiang Mai, Thailand. They came first with ease, defeating the
Maldives and
Bhutan in the Semi finals and finals respectively. The fourth favourites to win the cup were hosts,
Thailand who ended up in fourth place. In April 2009, Oman travelled to South Africa to participate in the
ICC World Cup Qualifier, the final tournament in qualification for the
2011 World Cup. During the tournament Oman finished last in their group and in the 11th place playoff they beat
Denmark by 5 wickets. In the
2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup, Oman were drawn in Group B. In the group stages of the competition it won all five of its games, finishing top of the group and qualifying for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals it lost to the
United Arab Emirates, therefore missing out on a chance to win back-to-back titles. In the third place playoff, it defeated
Kuwait. This victory enabled Oman to claim the final qualifying spot for the cricket tournament at the
2010 Asian Games. They played in
2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, where they came 3rd to remain in
2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three.
2014 onwards: Associate Membership and ODI and T20I status At the ICC Annual Conference, held in
Melbourne,
Australia, in June 2014, the
Oman Cricket Board was upgraded from an affiliate member of the ICC to an associate member. That announcement came during the
2014 WCL Division Four, where Oman placed fifth to be relegated to the
2016 Division Five event. Despite the team's poor performance in the 50-over format, Oman went on to win its next major international tournament, the
2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup, thus qualifying for
2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland. By defeating
Namibia in a sudden-death match at the World Twenty20 Qualifier, Oman reached the top six teams at the tournament, thus qualifying for the
2016 World Twenty20 and gaining
Twenty20 International status until at least 2019. The team made its T20I debut in the fifth-place play-off against
Afghanistan, and later in the year played bilateral T20I series against Afghanistan,
Hong Kong, and
United Arab Emirates. In 2016 Oman appeared at the 2016 World Twenty20 in India where they recorded an upset victory over
Ireland. They also appeared at the
2016 Asia Cup Qualifier. In January 2017 Oman took part in the
2017 Desert T20 Challenge. They reached the semi-finals of the tournament by beating
Hong Kong in the group stages, before being defeated by
Afghanistan. In April 2019, Oman gained ODI status for the first time, until at least 2022. On 19 June 2023, Oman played their first-ever ODI match against a test playing nation. Oman faced Ireland in 4th match of the
2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. They restricted Ireland to a score of 281/7 in 50 overs, and they chased down this target in 48.1 overs thanks to
Kashyap Prajapati's 72 (74). This marked Oman's first ODI victory against a full member nation. ==International grounds==