Drakes appointed as new national cricket team coach

Sharjah: Former West Indies allrounder Vasbert Drakes has been appointed as the new coach of the UAE cricket team.

"Drakes will replace Kabir Khan as the next coach. Khan wanted to attend a Level-4 coaching course in Scotland and had stepped down," said Mazhar Khan, the administrator of the Emirates Cricket Board.

"Drakes will take charge of the team from May 10. He has been very successful as a coach after his playing days," added Khan.

Drakes, who is only 38 years old, has been playing international cricket till four years back.

"His immediate task will be to prepare the UAE team for the prestigious Asia Cup to be held in June in Pakistan," said Khan.

As a player, Drakes had won laurels for his determination and fighting spirit. Drakes made his international debut at the age of 24 by playing in five One-day games against Australia and England but could not find a place in the team till 2002.

At the age of 33, after a gap of seven years, he fought his way back into the team through good performance for Barbados and in county cricket.

Drakes played in 12 Tests and 34 One-dayers. He played in English county cricket during summer and in winter he represented Border in South Africa.

In 2003, Leicestershire signed him up as the replacement for Virender Sehwag and in 2005 he played for Scotland.

Drakes bagged 33 wickets in Tests and 51 wickets in One-dayers as a right-arm fast bowler.

He was very useful as a lower order batsman and hit an unbeaten 27 to help West Indies chase a world record target of 418 runs against Australia in Antigua. He had also hit a fighting 67 against South Africa at Durban, despite West Indies losing by an innings.

IN THE AIR

TIMED OUT ON A PLANE

Vasbert Drakes is among only four batsmen in the history of first class cricket who were timed out. Interestingly, Drakes was timed out while he was not even in the country. Drakes was on a flight returning from Colombo, where he was touring with the West Indies team. His team Border, electing to bat, named him in the eleven but his flight was delayed. They crashed to 172 for 9 and Drakes was timed out.

- K.R. Nayar