Abu Dhabi: Plagued by a series of injuries and repeatedly being left in the cold, UAE’s veteran batman Saqib Ali has decided to put his bat to rest from international cricket.
The 37-year-old Pakistan-born batsman chose to keep his retirement announcement a low-key affair at a journalist’s residence and reminisced over a cup of tea. “There was nothing more left for me to prove or give. I have played cricket now for over 20 years here and it was time to call it a day,” said Ali, who led the UAE team in a few series and hogged the limelight when he led the UAE to the ICC World Cricket League Division Two title in 2007.
A right-handed middle order batsman, Ali is among those who moved to the UAE in search of fresher pastures, after playing considerable amounts of club cricket in Multan and figuring in the Pakistan U-19 team.
“I moved here at the very young age of 19. I had seen UAE play in the 1996 World Cup and knew they had cricket here. I joined New Medical Centre and played considerable amount of cricket at club level and then I told myself I should try to break into the UAE team,” said Ali, who was first picked to play in UAE’s friendly tour in Bangladesh to play against their A team. He then made his International tournament debut in 2006 December at ICC Intercontinental Cup against Namibia. In the same tournament, Ali scored his maiden first-class hundred against Scotland at Sharjah.
After being appointed captain in a match against Bermuda in 2007, Ali showed his batting prowess scoring 142 in his second innings after a duck in the first. However, the highlight of his career was his knock of 195 in the team total of 306 in 2008 as UAE went down to Ireland.
After serving UAE cricket for 17 years, Ali’s biggest dream of playing at the World Cup looked certain when the team qualified for the 2015 tournament. However, at the last minute, he was dropped from the team for the showpiece in Australia and New Zealand.
“Yes, not being picked for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was the biggest disappointment for me. However, what can you say. These things happen and you have to move on. It was a dream, but sometimes what you want can’t happen. Till five days before the tournament I was in the squad and then was dropped,” revealed Ali.
Misfortune followed him when despite being picked for UAE’s 2016 T20 World Cup qualifiers campaign in Ireland and Scotland in July, Ali had to board the flight back to the UAE having broken his index finger during practice.
“I had knee injury, back injury and a recurrence of the back injury, but I always came back strongly. However, this finger injury just before the T20 World Cup qualifiers was unfortunate,” said Ali, who felt UAE’s tame exit from the high profile event with just one win was a huge setback and they have to do something quickly.
“We couldn’t finish in the top six — this means we are slipping down in a fast pace and something has be done. Full-time cricketers are a must and so a contract system is a must and for that, something has to be done. ICC also has to be blamed as despite giving us the ODI [One Day International cricket] status in 2014 we haven’t played any match against Test-playing nations. The only way small teams can improve their game is by playing against big teams,” said Ali.
The senior pro will, however, continue to play club cricket and is hoping to be picked at the auction for the Masters Champions League, to be held in February next year.
