Mushrooming T20 tournaments a danger for UAE cricket

Dubai: The video clipping from a tournament hosted at the Ajman Oval ground without the approval of the Ajman Cricket Council went viral last week — resulting in this council suspending the accreditation to the venue. It even caught the attention of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit as batsmen made a mockery of the game by deliberately getting out as it was being telecast live.

Though this tournament was not part of UAE’s domestic cricket, the clipping has created some unwarranted negative publicity to the game in the region as it emanated from here.

At a time when Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) regularly hosts their international and Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) consider the UAE as a “preferred venue” to stage their next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here due to 2019 general elections in India, it is imperative that Emirates Cricket Board, through their cricket councils, have absolute control over all the tournaments held here and avoid anyone from misusing this region for corrupting cricket.

There was a time till a decade back when the tournaments held in the UAE were only those organised by the respective councils of the region. The scenario has changed after the advent of Twenty20 format as tournaments mushroomed all over the UAE without the regional council’s permission and knowledge.

The Ajman Oval ground incident has, hence, raised many unanswered questions, which Emirates Cricket Board will have to address at a war-footing with their respective cricket councils. A look at five key issues plaguing the UAE cricket:

Can anyone organise a tournament?

Today, anyone or any bunch of people can join hands and stage a tournament. Interestingly many of these people are not even well-known cricketers and some are those who haven’t even played cricket. Regional councils will not even know these organisers as they may not have played in any of their tournaments or been part of their cricket promotion. The number of such tournament organisers have swelled over the years as councils seems to have not bothered to stop these tournaments labelling them as ‘illegal’ and informing teams and players participating in those tournaments.

Who benefits from these tournaments?

The organisers of these tournaments claim that they are hosting the events to give exposure to the cricketers and provide a platform to reach the UAE team. As they are unapproved tournaments, any performance in these tournaments will not be taken into account for the UAE national team selection committee’s consideration. Teams and players in these tournaments sometimes receive money and individual awards as low as Dh250 when the organisers may have collected huge money from sponsors and also entry fees from teams in the guise of promoting cricket. No one audits these tournaments or check whether profit is pumped back into promoting cricket. None of these organisers inform the sponsors, from whom they collect money, to make them title sponsors or co-sponsors, that their tournament is without cricket council’s approval. In the absence of any information, some radio channels broadcast the tournaments and even results of the event.

Lack of grounds?

One of the reasons that such tournaments mushroomed is because the seven grounds of the Dubai Cricket Council in the Al Jadaf area, where nearly 500 matches used to be staged, were taken over in 2006. This council hasn’t managed to get any alternative grounds and though over a decade has passed, till date it does not have a ground of its own. Many clubs and team owners say off-the-record that why should teams take permission from a council, which does not even have their own ground or facilities to stage even their own tournament? Teams flocked to Umm Al Quwain, which staged tournaments under the Ajman Cricket Council but their 15 grounds, which used to stage 1000 matches every year, were also taken away last year.

Lack of interaction between clubs, councils

Clubs and teams here rarely get to interact with the councils. Unlike in Test-playing nations where the districts’ association hold general body meetings of representatives of clubs, council members and team or club owners rarely meet here for the elections for council members or representatives. Any errant club or player could have been stopped from playing in an unauthorised tournament by calling a meeting of clubs. The general grouse of the clubs is they do not get any benefit from the council in return for their annual registration fee.

Dangers of ‘illegal’ tournaments

‘Illegal’ tournaments are not officiated by qualified umpires of the council, hence the men in white does not wield any power to take action against any act of indiscipline by a team or player. Tournaments can now be streamed live through websites — leaving scope for corruption. For officially approved tournaments, the names of overseas players have to be listed but in unauthorised tournaments, even a banned player of any country can play. The ball is now in the court of ECB and the councils to uphold cricket’s reputation in the region.