Danube Lions owner Anis Sajan on the state of UAE cricket

The above facilities are utilized more for international cricket during peak season than for the domestic cricket – particularly as UAE has become a home ground for Pakistan, meaning that during the winter season, the grounds are not available for local tournaments when the weather is at its best to play cricket.

Many corporate groups spend a lot of money every season to run their cricket teams but there is still plenty of room for cricket in UAE to further improve.

Cricket is played all year round, with T20 cricket generally given more importance than the 50-over format – with a minimum of 15 T20 tournaments played in the 10 months until Ramadan, compared to only three of 50 overs.

It’s a pity that the respective councils in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain and Abu Dhabi are mainly focusing on T20. There has been no attempt made to play tournaments of 2-3 days to test the players’ temperaments; the longer games examine physical and emotional strength – it’s what separates the men from the boys in cricket.

– UAE: Closure of six clubs will not affect cricket
– Also: Danube clinch Conares Mirchi Premier League
– #Quiz360: WIN a gym membership at FitRepublik

Tournaments are often organised without a proper calendar and planning, with the teams often playing more matches than the internationals. Back-to-back matches are regularly played, which leads to players getting injured as there is no rest between games.

In most of the tournaments the scoring and changing of the sight screen has to be done by the players, in spite of paying a big chunk of entry fee.

I have tried to begin two-day cricket matches over the last two years and it was well accepted by the teams participating but unfortunately no other council or management decided to take it further. To my dismay, I rarely found any council heads, nor the UAE coach or the ECB head coming and even watching the games which were played in the best facilities of ICC academy.

Aside from two-day cricket, it is rare for any selector from the respective organizing bodies, to come and watch any games and observing the local talent. Of course, everyone has work commitments but unless you watch the local players in action personally, how do you select them.  Players can’t be selected on the basis of statistics – it does not give a true picture.

Danube Lions to face Interface Transworld in #UBLT20 final http://t.co/fKyUVy8wk1 pic.twitter.com/9884Eb8hK4

— Sport360 (@Sport360) April 27, 2015

I have watched a lot of Danube Lions games of 50 overs cricket, locking horns with other corporate teams, but not one team – including Danube – bats its full 50 overs as the players have sadly been not taught the right way to pace their innings and how to finish the innings. Most of the players want to go for the glory shorts if they have played out a few dot balls or overs rather than rotating the strike and hence the teams don’t bat their full quota of overs; the patience and temperament is lacking.

The most depressing part of both 50-over cricket and T20 cricket is the fitness of most of the players, which is below par and leads to more boundaries hit than singles taken. Also due to the poor fitness, the fielding is below standard and not one game goes without a catch being spilled by both the teams.

UAE came close to beating both Ireland and Zimbabwe in their World Cup games but it was fielding rather than experience which cost them these games.

It was a proud moment when UAE played in the last T20 and 50-over World Cups but if proper direction and guidance are given to the local players, UAE has the talent, potential and the infrastructure to qualify regularly and get better results.

I want to see UAE cricket in the international arena more often and this can be possible if all council heads think in one direction which is UAE Cricket and not Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Abu Dhabi as separate entities.