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World Championship of Legends opens in Sharjah with India vs Pakistan in Dubai
Seven teams will compete across Sharjah and Dubai as the tournament stages its first season outside the United Kingdom
- PUBLISHED: Fri 2 Oct 2026, 10:29 AM
The World Championship of Legends (WCL) will begin its third season at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday, October 3, bringing some of cricket’s best-known former players to the UAE for 24 matches across Sharjah and Dubai.
The tournament opens with India Champions taking on Australia Champions at 3:30pm, followed by Pakistan Champions against Bangladesh Champions at 7:30pm. Seven teams will compete this season, with the final scheduled for October 18 in Sharjah.
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One of the most anticipated fixtures will see India Champions face Pakistan Champions on October 10, at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The match starts at 7:30pm UAE time.
This year marks the first time the WCL has been staged outside the United Kingdom, while Bangladesh joins the tournament for the first time.
India Champions will be captained by Yuvraj Singh, with the squad also featuring Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan. Yuvraj, who was named player of the tournament at the 2011 World Cup, returns alongside several players familiar to generations of cricket fans.
Pakistan Champions will feature Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez, while David Warner is set to make his WCL debut for Australia. AB de Villiers joins defending champions South Africa.
The choice of Sharjah as one of the tournament’s two UAE venues also brings the competition to a ground with a long history of international cricket dating back to the 1980s.
Co-owner Ajay Devgn described the league as “emotion, nostalgia and entertainment coming together on one platform”. Organisers say last season’s global audience ran into the hundreds of millions.
Match days will feature double-headers, with one ticket providing access to both matches scheduled for that day, according to the ticket listing. Tickets are being sold through District.
The tournament also arrives as UAE businesses plan their festive-season calendars, with its combination of established cricket names and a multi-generational fan base attracting interest from sports and entertainment marketing teams across the region.
For UAE cricket fans, the tournament offers another opportunity to see players they followed during their international careers return to the field, this time across two of the country’s best-known cricket venues.