Umm Al Quwain: The emirate of Umm Al Quwain does not have a cricket council but it staged 473 matches last season. They honoured the outstanding performers from their tournaments through a colourful ceremony last week. Afridi Cricket Club hogged the limelight winning four out of the 13 tournaments.
Umm Al Quwain tournaments are the brain child of Mushtaq Ahmad Chowdhary, an ardent cricket lover who works as a sales man for a water company. He created many cricket pitches and makes sure to stage over ten tournaments every year.
Speaking to Gulf News, Chowdhary said: "To stage over 473 matches wasn't easy but the enthusiasm of the teams to play here makes me work hard to stage as many tournaments as possible every year."
Due to absence of a council in his emirate he seeks the permission of the Emirates Cricket Board and stages the matches under the Ajman Cricket Council. "A total of 264 teams was played here last season. The success of my tournament is purely due to the co-operation from the teams. Sometimes teams have to play two matches a day but most captains agree for it," said Chowdhary, who makes sure that every team is presented trophies and all individual performers are honoured.
Afridi Cricket Club won four tournaments such as the third UAQ Premier T20, 3rd UAQ T20 League, 4th Invitational Premier T20 and the 3rd UAQ Municipality Premier T20 events.
This club's top performers like Hasmat Khan, Saqlain Hyder, Mohammad Adnan, Mohammad Zahid, Shazhad Manna and Faraz Naeem were given individual awards.
Mohammad Azem of Age Group took the honours of being the highest scorer, hitting 175 in 57 balls which included a dozen sixes and 21 boundaries.
Murtuza Mogul of AEN Dubai bagged the best the all-rounder award for scoring 392 runs and bagging 37 wickets from two tournaments. Shazhad Manna of Afridi with 57 sixes picked the prize for maximum sixes. Prizes were even given for disciplined teams which were won by Dubai Islamic Bank, Fanatics RAK, Golden Tower, Dulsco SC and ETA Ascon.
