Dubai: Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) has outlined plans to launch a programme that will identity the best young cricketers in the UAE and groom them for a strong national team in the future. Andrew Russell, who took charge recently as the National Development Manager of the ECB, is busy working out an action plan in consultation with the cricket councils in the UAE.

Speaking to Gulf News, the South African said: “One of our objectives is to spot the best talents in the UAE. For this, we are planning a best-versus-best tournament. This tournament will be staged by the ECB and we are working out details through discussions with the various councils.”

Russell, who has an Honours Degree in High Performance Management and has worked with athletes, coaches and umpires as High Performance Co-ordinator of the Dubai Sports City from 2009 and also as ICC Global Cricket Academies’ coaching co-ordinator since 2011, said: “Our plan is to get the best players playing against the best players in order to assist the selection process to the UAE team at all levels. Initially, it might be a four-year plan but eventually we want it to become an all-compassing programme.”

According to Russell, the best-versus-best tournament will start at the grassroots level. “We will be aiming to start at the under-19 age level. We will launch an inter-council tournament where the best from each council will play against each other,” he said.

Russell explained that he will be working on the three goals that have been chalked out by the ECB: “First is to make UAE team as competitive as possible. Secondly to grow the game by getting as many people play the game here and thirdly to increase UAE nationals’ participation in the game.”

Identifying a pool of the best 40 players is on the agenda and Russell elaborated on the process. “We want to create a base of top players especially at the highest level. We want players who are strong enough to play for UAE , creating that depth of players who can be competitive and it can go down to Under-19 identifying top players at this age group,” he said.

“We want to make it attractive for juniors to stay on and play for UAE. In fact, we are looking to retain players at all levels so they can continue to play cricket here. We are also exploring possibilities to provide scholarships to students in consultation with some universities,” said Russell, who was a wicket-keeper batsman and played for South Africa at the Under-19 level.

Russel is also actively into rugby and represented the UAE Rugby 7’s and 15’s teams. He also worked at Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union (AGRFU) as Rugby Service Officer.

Russell is keen to streamline all the activities of the academies in the UAE. “My job description is also to integrate the academies here with information and auditing on what they do and how they do it and make sure their structures are in line with the ECB’s structures. We will be trying to find out through academies if any UAE national players are in their region and if there is possibility of giving training free for them at their academy. We also want academies to provide information on women cricketers with them so that when we run a tournament we can invite all the women together and create a base. At the moment, it is a bit individualised in what the academies are doing and so we are looking at system where we all share information.”