Maryam Omar

Maryam Osama Khalil Omar (born 8 March 1993) is a Kuwaiti-Palestinian engineer and cricketer who plays for the Kuwait women's national cricket team as a right-handed batting all-rounder. She has also captained the national team. Born and raised in Kuwait, Omar is a Palestinian, and has been described as a "global grand tour all on her own"; she was educated in a Pakistani school in Kuwait, and also in Melbourne, Australia, where she now lives.

Early life and education Kuwait Omar was born in Kuwait to mother Salwa and father Osama. She has three sisters, Amal, Zuhoor and Budoor. She does not really remember whether her first baby steps were on land or in water: "My father's love for swimming had a big impact on me and I even competed at club levels in swimming tournaments." She has also said that her mother "did a great job in making me tough", Although Omar, as a pupil of a Pakistani school, already had a vague awareness of the game, she neither understood the rules very much, nor knew how big it was. Omar says that it is not easy for girls from the region to pursue a career in or passion for sport, She completed that degree with "straight As" and "a perfect GPA" in 2014,

Omar arrived in Melbourne, and began her master's in civil engineering, in 2016.

Australia Omar spent her first two cricket seasons in Melbourne, 2016/17 and 2017/18, at Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Cricket Club, the oldest women's cricket club in the world. In both seasons, she played for both the Firsts and Reserves teams; in the former team, her teammates included then and future Australian players Molly Strano and Georgia Wareham, respectively, and State and WBBL player Makinley Blows. She also played for Port Melbourne in men's cricket competitions.

During Omar's first Australian season, "I was completely out of my comfort zone, new to the country, culture and did not know my way around public transport." she was also a member of the Premiership-winning Firsts One Day team. The move also gave Omar more opportunities to play in the Firsts competitions. In her three seasons at Dandenong, she also achieved consistent highest One Day match scores, of 42, 49 and 44*, respectively.

Omar then moved to the newly rebadged Carlton team for the 2021/22 season. Carlton was similarly seeking to bolster an inexperienced squad. Omar's first season there was less successful, with a highest One Day match score of 34 towards the end of the summer. She also played some further men's matches for Port Melbourne. The match was also Kuwait's first ever WT20I. Malaysia won the match, by 63 runs. However, Kuwait lost the match by 30 runs, and finished the tournament in last place, after losing all of its matches.

In January 2020, Kuwait participated in, and won, the Qatar Women's T20I Triangular Series in Doha, Qatar, but Omar was not involved in that tournament. In her absence, the Kuwait squad was captained by Amna Tariq. Omar played in all five of Kuwait's matches in the tournament, and topped the team's batting aggregates and averages with 107 runs at 26.75, but the team again lost all of its matches, and finished in last place.

Kuwait's and Omar's next WT20Is were during the GCC Women's Gulf Cup, held in Muscat, Oman, in March 2022. In a contest between six teams, Kuwait managed to finish in fourth place, with victories against both Qatar and Saudi Arabia. During the tournament, Omar once again played in all five of Kuwait's matches and topped the team's aggregates and averages, this time with 145 runs at 36.25. Her best all-round performance was on 22 March 2022, against Qatar: she took 4/14, scored 40 runs in 44 balls, and was awarded player of the match. Kuwait won that match, by 9 wickets, but three days later lost to Bahrain by six wickets, even though Omar had racked up her highest T20I score to date, with 54 runs in 47 balls.

FairBreak career In May 2022, Omar played in the privately-run 2022 FairBreak Invitational T20 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She was allocated to the Sapphires team. Her preferred batting position is number four in the order, and she bowls off spin. She sees herself as an aggressive player who nevertheless seeks to play according to the situation. In Kuwait, where she learned the game, women play only the T20 format. She was therefore trained to go out hard to gain advantage of the field restrictions during the power play.

In Melbourne, women play both T20 and 50 over format matches, and Omar took some time to adjust to the latter format.

For religious reasons, Omar wears a Muslim head-covering, a hijab, both on and off the cricket field. She decided to become a hijab wearer when she was 15 years old. Prior to taking the field at cricket matches, she dons a fast-wicking sports hijab. "For sport, I like the hijab a little tighter so I can run and dive around, and do all that cool stuff", she has said.

Other activities Since completing her master's degree, Omar has continued to work for pitt&sherry. Initially, she was a structural engineer, engaged in temporary works on the West Gate Tunnel project. Between 2019 and 2021, she was a civil/structural engineer, and since 2021 she has focused on civil engineering.