Abu Dhabi teen reigns with bat at UK cricket festival

Abu Dhabi: To say 15-year-old Mohammad Riyan has been creating waves in the UK would be an understatement.

A product of Zayed Cricket Academy in Abu Dhabi, Riyan became the first cricketer in the UAE to move to the UK to pursue a career after earning himself a scholarship at the Ardingly College.

Just through with his first term, Riyan has already hogged the limelight in the UK with some impressive performances, the highlight being a record opening-wicket partnership of 297 runs for Ardingly College during a cricket festival involving several schools. While he scored a fine 145, his partner Harry Rollings was unbeaten on 131.

“It’s a great feeling to see your name on the notice board mentioning your achievement,” Riyan told XPRESS.

“We were also given a memento on the last day of our school,” he added.

It was not Riyan’s first big knock in the UK. After joining Ardingly College in September last year, he stamped his authority scoring an unbeaten 98 in the very first match that he played for the school.

He kept his good form going by registering three half centuries in a total of 18 matches he played in the first season. “It’s important to keep your form and stay focused,” Riyan said, adding that his goal was to get into one of the counties. “You get noticed only if you are consistently doing well. For now everything is going well and I want to maintain the same and work towards achieving my goal,” he added.

Riyan’s opportunity came when he travelled to the UK as part of the MCC-Zayed Cricket Academy tour for a Sussex County Cricket Club tournament where he attracted the attention of Sussex Cricket Coach Chris Waller.

“He approached us and suggested that he go for a cricket scholarship and gave a list of schools before we finalised on Ardingly,” said Mohammed Zaheer, Riyan’s father.

At Ardingly College, Riyan is mentored by head coach Nick Tester and Keith Wright, father of England international Luke Wright.

“Riyan has huge talent, and we are excited by his prospects in the future. We certainly want to develop relationships with the UAE at Ardingly and our work with Riyan is crucial to this. His cricket has improved, as has his academics, and I have enjoyed working with him thus far in his career,” Tester said.

Riyan, currently on vacation in Abu Dhabi, is already looking forward to the next season. “I think I had a good season. I have learnt a lot in this one season. We get to play regularly and have lot of matches and obviously the quality is high and the coaching sessions are intense,” he said.

“Since we have to do things on our own it also allows us to understand our responsibilities,” he added.

Riyan has been part of the Zayed Cricket Academy since the day he started cricket when he was six years old. He also won the Most Promising Young Cricketer award a year later for his domestic performances.