DUBAI // As the UAE’s leading youngsters vied for attention in Abu Dhabi, a side set up with the aim of bridging the gap between age-group and senior representative cricket was making an awkward start to life in Dubai.
The Emirati Warriors, a team made up of passport holders and other UAE-born players, were thrashed by GMW Sharjah Royal Challengers in the opening match of the SuperStars T20.
The scale of the mismatch was perhaps forgivable.
The victorious side was packed full of imported talent, personified by their top three batsmen.
Between them, Sharjeel Khan, the Pakistan international who scored a century, Shahzaib Hasan, who won the 2009 World Twenty20 with Pakistan, and Owais Shah, the former England Test player, scored 215 in 20 overs.
Clearly, none of that star trio have any intention of representing the UAE any time soon, but that is not always the case with players who are brought to the country on cricket contracts.
The contrast to their opposition is vast. The Warriors side is captained by Mohammed Tauqir, who led the UAE at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, as well as other senior Emirati players Salman and Qais Farooq.
It also includes Rohit Singh, a promising Dubai-born Indian batsman, and Qasim Zubair, a Dubai-born fast bowler who was once the spearhead of the UAE seam attack but has been sidelined recently with a serious knee injury.
Salman Farooq, who set up the Warriors, says he believes many talented young players who were born and raised in the UAE have been lost to the game because of the amount of overseas recruits.
He wants the Warriors side to become a finishing school for promising prospects who might otherwise become lost in a senior system that is flooded with established cricketers from abroad who come to the UAE to work.
“A lot of players who have grown up in the system here feel dejected when they see players get picked for the UAE straight away, as soon as they have finished their four years (residency qualification to play international cricket),” he said.
“There is no point for these guys working hard to represent UAE at under 19 level, then after that it is all about the big boys who have tried to make it in India and Pakistan or wherever and couldn’t get into their national team.
“We are here to try to promote cricket. We spoke to (UAE coach) Aaqib Javed and asked for a list of talented young players to select.”
Alawi Shukri, an Emirati batsman, was unavailable for the Warriors opener as he was captaining Edible Arrangements in the Bukhatir League in Sharjah, but he says the new side is a valuable initiative.
“The UAE team is built on players from companies who have invested in players from a different system,” Shukri said.
“Emirati Warriors is a really good initiative, but it can’t just be for one tournament and it needs a national schools system feeding into it.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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