MCC link up with the UAE

Paul Radley and Amith Passela

• Last Updated: November 05. 2009 10:01PM UAE / November 5. 2009 6:01PM GMT

ABU DHABI // Aspiring cricketers in the UAE are set to benefit from the kind of expertise which helped set the likes of Denis Compton, Sir Ian Botham and Mark Waugh on the path to greatness following an agreement reached between Abu Dhabi Cricket Club (ADCC) and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Under the terms of the three-year deal, ADCC will become an Associate Club partner of MCC, who are based at Lord’s.

The academy, which is housed at the stadium, will also be renamed the Zayed MCC Cricket Academy, Abu Dhabi.

The partnership will enable the MCC to use the Zayed Stadium and academy during the English off-season, as well as to help promote the game in the region.

Plans are in place to relocate the traditional curtain-raiser to the English season, the match between the champion county and MCC, to Zayed Stadium next April, where the use of pink cricket balls under floodlights will be trialled for the first time in a first-class match.

Dilawar Mani, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Cricket Club, said: “This is a tremendous boost for UAE cricket and aspiring juniors.

“This partnership augurs well, as we will be able to work more closely with the MCC. This certainly is a wonderful opportunity for the youngsters.”

The partnership is the latest boost to the grassroots game in the country.

Junior cricketers will start to reap the benefits of the ICC’s Global Cricket Academy when its facility at Dubai Sports City opens early next year.

That scheme is being driven by the likes of the former Test players Rodney Marsh, Dayle Hadlee and Mudassar Nazar.

MCC have a track record for producing top-class players via their Young Cricketers scheme. Compton, Botham and Waugh are just some of the alumni, and Ross Taylor, the New Zealand batsman who will line up against Pakistan in the second Cool & Cool Cup match at the Zayed Stadium this afternoon, is another.

MCC’s secretary and chief executive, Keith Bradshaw, said the opportunity will now be open to talented cricketers from the UAE to follow in their footsteps.

He said: “We really focus on the grassroots and developing cricket. We will be helping with coaching programmes and talent identification, and most certainly there would be the chance for a player to come across and spend a summer or two as part of the Young Cricketers.”

The announcement of the new association coincided with the visit of the MCC World Cricket Committee to the ICC headquarters in Dubai.

During their meeting with the game’s rulers, the high-profile group – which includes former greats such as Steve Waugh and Geoff Boycott – proposed a Test championship.

They believe a new format of competition, which would most likely see the top-four ranked nations in the world play-off over a three week period, would help arrest dwindling interest in the longer form of the game.

Tony Lewis, the former England captain who heads the committee, said: “We have been trying to work out if there is a way we can have a Test championship with a cup and a winner, which is something that has never happened.

“We do feel the marketing and packaging of Test cricket has become and urgent need for the game. It is a serious pursuit.”

sports@thenational.ae