United Arab Emirates Cricket Team: Many of us cricket fans and enthusiasts are interested in watching only the biggest world-class plays the very best of the best. Although we take interest in domestic leagues at times, it is only in hope of seeing the next big talent in international cricket to emerge from our home country grow and be nourished by first-class cricket, and even then this is only a small number of dedicated cricket enthusiasts who can find the time to engage and study anything other than T20Is and top-notch ODI plays. Since this is the near universal standpoint, with only a surface-level perspective of world cricket (as the case may be in almost every major internationally recognized sports), United Arab Emirates represents a marginal, yet large, sect of that world which flies under the radar.
If one were to merit the contributions of world cricket from a nation on the basis of their infrastructure, plaudits, and historical records with their cricket involvement, countries like Australia comes out on top, whereas the United Arab Emirates is roughly the opposite end of that spectrum. The country had no meaningful national interest in cricket as a sport at least up till the mid-’90s, and even now it is not a national sport so much as it is in countries like India and England.
This is not to say that the history of UAE culture has nothing to do with cricket. Invariably, as a sheikhdom ruled by the British Empire of the late Victorian era, cricket was brought into it as a favorite pastime of the rulers, and Al Ain houses the oldest cricket councils in all of United Arab Emirates. During the second world war, Commonwealth air force personnel also started playing cricket to pass the time while stationed in Ajman, Dubai, and Sharjah. The pitch they made in Sharjah lingered even after the war and saw more play. After the independence of the UAE, the interest in cricket subsided.
United Arab Emirates Cricket Team: Whatever interest has revitalized itself today is owing to the South Asian expatriates, particularly those from the subcontinent who were keen to return to their favorite sport that they grew up watching. The wealthier ones among them started investing in it to get it some preliminary foothold since the mid-’70s, and about a decade later the cricket stadium in Sharjah hosted its first international event, becoming the venue for Asia Cup matches between India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The status of cricket was cemented as a professional sport once UAE’s own board, ECB, was established in 1989.
The initial international teams – consisting largely of expats who were passionate about cricket, and often only played it semi-professionally (i.e. not full-time cricketers but required a secondary job for sustenance and livelihood) – had done extremely well to even bag a seat in the 1996 World Cup.
The infrastructure has not improved by a significant amount since then to date, but the UAE side still has left no stones unturned in trying to do more and better. 2018, for such a comparatively nondescript cricket team with humble beginnings and young age, had been a promising year. If you flip through the pages, you will find that the biggest hype for the last year was coming so close to a seat in the 2018 Asia Cup. To this end, UAE had strived arduously in all the 5 Asia Cup Qualifier matches that they played in 2018. They went toe to toe against Hong Kong in the final match. After a promising 79 out of 51 balls faced by opening batsman Ashfaq Ahmed, their lineup, unfortunately, collapsed quickly, leaving them bundled (save for Ahmed Raza) at 179, a target easily chased down by the Hong Kong side.
Roughly six weeks later after this tragic exit from the prospect of further Asia Cup involvement before 2020, UAE again had to face the Australian big boys in a one-off T20I match, where the decision to take the batting innings first had ultimately been their undoing, as the T20I-format dominating Australia had easily chased the 118 targets without burning through the middle order batsmen.
The more international play took place in the Under-23 cricket level in the eight-team 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup (although technically four players above the age of 23 were permissible for top Asian associate teams). UAE took part in it and showed some epic bowling performance against the Bangladesh U-23 side. Unfortunately, they were eliminated at the group stage because the vs Hong Kong match was called off due to rain.
However, the same bowling form recurred this year in UAE’s first international match of the year. In the opening match of the Nepal Tour of UAE this January, UAE had taken a resounding lead in the first ODI match by bundling the touring Nepal side within 33 overs and 113 runs. Amir Hayat took 3 wickets for 19 runs to bag the man of the match title.
United Arab Emirates Cricket Team Upcoming Matches
So far, all that seems to be on UAE’s plate this year on the international level cricket seems to be the rest of this series vs Nepal. The series will consist of 2 more ODI matches and a best-of-three T20I series. Given below are the details of these upcoming fixtures:
| Match | Venue | Date | Time |
| Second ODI match b/w UAE and Nepal, Nepal Tour of United Arab Emirates 2019 | Dubai ICC Academy | 26th January 2019
Saturday |
11:00 AM IST / 9:30 AM Local Time / 5:30 AM GMT |
| Third ODI match b/w UAE and Nepal, Nepal Tour of United Arab Emirates 2019 | Dubai ICC Academy | 28th January 2019
Monday |
11:00 AM IST / 9:30 AM Local Time / 5:30 AM GMT |
| First Test match b/w UAE and Nepal, Nepal Tour of United Arab Emirates 2019 | Dubai ICC Academy | 31st January 2019
Thursday |
2:30 PM IST / 1:00 PM Local Time / 9:00 AM GMT |
| Second Test match b/w UAE and Nepal, Nepal Tour of United Arab Emirates 2019 | Dubai ICC Academy | 1st February 2019
Friday |
2:30 PM IST / 1:00 PM Local Time / 9:00 AM GMT |
| Third Test match b/w UAE and Nepal, Nepal Tour of United Arab Emirates 2019 | Dubai ICC Academy | 3rd February 2019
Sunday |
2:30 PM IST / 1:00 PM Local Time / 9:00 AM GMT |
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