Cricket in UAE scales new heights

UAE is not yet a Test playing nation and is only an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), but its contribution to the game has been spectacular.

The story began by hosting One-day matches when many wondered how cricket would be played in a desert; and then it stunned the world by staging Test matches and now Twenty20, the most modern form of the game.

All these would have remained a dream but for Abdul Rahman Bukhatir who created facilities to stage all forms of the game and then cleared the way for all best teams to play here. One wonders whether there is any cricket administrator or promoter who has contributed so much over four decades to the game. It is indeed surprising why he does not figure among those honoured with life time achievement awards for their contribution to the game.

With the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, he created history by hosting the maximum number of One-day matches. When cricket players in the UAE were deprived of enough grounds to play the game during the construction boom, he came up with the Al Dhaid Cricket Village. Then when he heard that the Afghanistan team was unable to train in their war-torn country, he opened doors of the Sharjah Stadium for them. It is mainly his vision that resulted in the Dubai Sports City with the ICC headquarters and ICC Global Cricket Academy now located there.

Nostalgic feeling

It is a nostalgic feeling now writing this column on the first day of the first ever Test match in Dubai, and it feels equally great to have reported all forms of the game in the UAE right from the eighties.

While reporting the first ever Test match in UAE on January 31, 2002, at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium between West Indies and Pakistan, there was never this thought that one day two other centres in the UAE will also go on to stage Test cricket.

Just like a cricketer feels incomplete if he does not play Test cricket, UAE too would not have achieved the ultimate glory had it not staged Test matches.

It's time UAE is considered a future venue for a World Cup, Champions Trophy or a Twenty20 World Cup. Last Friday, fans filled up the 25,000 capacity Dubai stadium. The least cricket authorities can do is to include UAE in their Future Tour Progamme for international tournaments or else they will be preventing cricket from being played in a country whose heart throbs with passion for the game.