Thirty-two teams will compete in this year’s edition of the FastLink Mobile T20 tournament, Abu Dhabi Cricket Club (ADCC) officials confirmed yesterday.

A total of 14 matches will be played every Friday, beginning April 11 at 08:00 and 13:45 on the domestic grounds outside Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The teams have been split into eight groups and the top two from each pool will go to the knock-out stage.

The winners will receive Dh10,000 and the runners-up will get Dh5,000.

The tournament, which will have 63 matches in total, will be the first for new sponsors FastLink Mobile and Ace International.

Mohammed Hussein Al Nahlawi, finance and administration manager at FastLink, said: “Our goal at Fastlink is to promote sport as a social activity. We are happy to be sponsoring this tournament and we don’t want this to be our last association in cricket.”

Ankush Bedi, managing director at Ace International, added: “We are pleased to be sponsors for the tournament and it’s always been our intention to support competitions in the UAE.”

ADCC president Wajahat Husain said he expects the 2014 edition to be another successful tournament.

“Today is the beginning of a longterm association between the two sponsors and the ADCC, and I’m sure the tournament will be a success that will see a lot of competitive matches,” said Husain.