Dubai: Gemini Arabians, owned by domestic cricketer Nalin Khaitan, a side that will play in the Masters Champions League (MCL), has a reputation of being the team with a UAE flavour. With the arrival of their top legends, the team is now gearing up to launch a series of activities to boost UAE cricket and help cricketers here sharpen their skills.
Speaking to Gulf News, Khaitan, who captains Interface, one of the leading teams in domestic cricket, said: “We have many great legends in our team and before the start of the tournament they will be playing in a few practice matches. Our first practice match is against Interface on January 25 and second against Danube on January 27. We are trying to bring around 400 school kids to the stadium to watch these legends play.”
Gemini Arabians have players like Kumar Sangakkara, Virender Sehwag, Muttiah Muralitharan, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul in the team. “On January 29, some of the legends of our team will visit the Emirates Sevens ground where an under-13 and an under-15 tournament will be played. Our legends will inspire the youngsters by speaking to the kids. There are also plans to have the legends visit a few cricket academies in the UAE too,” said Khaitan.
Gemini Arabians have also decided to help cricketers in the UAE to sharpen up. “On February 1 and 2 we are helping Emirati off spinner Salman Farooq with a one-on-one session with Saqlain. This is because Salman had some issues with his bowling action, as noted by the ICC, and so he will be working with Saqlain to get his action corrected and learn some tricks too,” said Khaitan, who is the only investor from the UAE, with the rest of the MCL teams investors from India.
“We are the home team and it is great to have all these greats on board. These are all legends, the real stars of cricket over the last 10 years and I am sure the fans will really back these cricketers. For us it’s a great honour to have them on our side, I am expecting them to do really well,” he said.
When asked what prompted him to have a team from UAE in the MCL, Nalin said: “Ameen Farooq, the secretary of the DCC was having a meeting with local team owners and captains on how to improve cricket in Dubai. During the discussion suddenly he talked about MCL and I loved the concept. In three days I went to Zafar Shah (chairman of MCL) and told him we will participate.”
Khaitan made it a point to ensure the region’s presence is in his team’s name. “The league is based on sun signs so we picked Gemini and added Arabians to the name because we are the home team, a team from Dubai,” he said.
Talking about the team, Nalin added: “We have classed the team into two categories with one having brute force at the top with Richard Levi, and Sehwag. They are all about hand-eye co-ordination and firepower. We have got Brad Hodge and Justin Kemp lower down to finish the job and in the middle order we have got three classy left-handers in Sangakkara, Chanderpaul and Jacques Rudolph and all three can bring a bit of finesse to the game.”
Khaitan also knows what is needed to win on wickets here. “You need a very good spin attack on UAE wickets and there cannot be better spinners in the world than Murali, Saqlain and Paul Harris. We have even pacers Kyle Mills and Rana Naveed who are experts in bowling cutters and slower delivers. We also have UAE’s Saqib Ali, who has got plenty of local wicket knowledge and will be an important cog in the wheel.”
