With the Asian Games requiring all participants to be citizens of the country they represent and citizenship not even automatic for people born in most countries in the Arabian Gulf region, Asian associate heavyweights UAE and Qatar won't be taking part.

As an alternative though, they took part in the six team Gulf Cup alongside Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and hosts Qatar.

The tournament began on 15th September with 15 round robin games before it culminated in a final yesterday. UAE topped the table with four wins in their five games, their only slip up coming in their final group game when they lost to Bahrain by three runs. Bahrain, Oman and Qatar all finished level on six points with Oman having the superior net run rate to join UAE in the final.

Kuwait won two of their games, whilst Saudi Arabia propped up the rest with no wins from their five games.

UAE captain Muhammad Waseem won the toss and chose to bat first in the final, and was his team's top scorer with 46 from 31 balls. Notable contributions also came from Asif Khan (38) and Basil Hameed (36 not out) as they scored 163-5 from their 20 overs.

Oman lost both openers cheaply but a 66 run partnership for the third wicket between captain Aqib Ilyas and Shoaib Khan got their reply back on track before the latter was out for 22. Ilyas went on to score 67 from only 33 balls, before Ayaan Khan guided the team home with an unbeaten 53 from 38 balls to secure a five wicket win with four balls to spare.