We know the top nations that play cricket and are avid followers of them. But how well do we know how these teams fared in their initial stages? Yes, every team goes through an intense procedure of development and it is really exciting to see how a team is developed from scratch.
Recently we saw Afghanistan unearth several world-class talents and their players have reached the high standard wherein they have started to dominate at the highest levels. There are several teams who are in their budding stages and one such team that catches cricwizz’s eyes is the United Arab Emirates.
Before few years if do ask about an Arabian ODI status by the ICC and though the Emirates Cricket Board was formed in 1989, they have only now started to make it into the limelight.
UAE’s success at the ACC Trophy
The Arab Nation has won the ACC trophy on 5 occasions and is currently the most successful team at the Asian Cricket Council Trophy tournament. They won their inaugural ACC trophy back in 2000 but was their success at the ICC Trophy in 1994 that they started to whisper their name at the highest level and it was the same year they played their first-ever full ODI against Team India.
They also hold several records at the ACC trophy, the stand out being the highest ever team total of 510 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.
UAE’s performance at the Grand tournaments
UAE has done a decent job in qualifying for the grand tournaments and has also managed to make it to the Asia Cup on two occasions. They also were part of the 2015 ICC World cup which they managed to qualify after winning the World cup Qualifier.
Unfortunately, they were eliminated from the 2019 ICC Men's’ T20 World Cup Qualifier after finishing 7th in the standings. The format of the tournament meant that only the top 6 nations would make it to the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Stadiums
In addition to putting in a great effort to make it to the International stage, the board and the country together have also made investments in creating wonderful stadiums for the game. The Country has already conducted some of the major cricket tournaments- with the highlights being the 2019 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualifier and the recently concluded Indian Premier League.
Currently, the country has 6 International Stadiums that are game ready and two which are under construction.
World Records held by UAE
1) Highest ever 7th wicket partnership in the World cup history - 107 runs vs Ireland (Amjad Javed and Shaiman Anwar) and 107 vs West Indies (Amjad Javed and Nasir Aziz).
2) Khurram Khan oldest player to score an ODI century and the oldest player to score a maiden ODI century (43 years and 162 days)
Current UAE squad
The UAE team recently played Ireland in a curtailed ODI series. The ODI series which was initially planned to be a 4-match series was later curtailed to 2- matches after a few of the UAE players were tested positive for Covid-19. They did manage to draw the series 1-1.
Let us have a look at the current squad of the UAE team, the team is a combination of players of many origins- India, Pakistan, UAE, Sri Lanka but who have settled down in the country now. Once again an example that shows the beauty of cricket- Unity.
Though early stages, the team does look all set for the coming years and their inspirational journey combined with the genuine effort of the players and the Emirates Cricket Board does promise us that there is a lot to come from this associate Arab Nation.
