Three years after being denied a UAE debut following a medical test, Zafri Zafardeen has vowed to make the most of his opportunity when he lines up for the U-19s this week.
The 18-year-old fast-bowler is among the 14 players to travel to Malaysia tonight for the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-19 Premier League with the UAE beginning their campaign against Nepal on Friday.
The Dubai English Speaking College student has been involved in every national age group trial from U-14s onwards, and thought he had achieved his goal when selected in the U-16 squad in 2012 for their ACC qualifiers.
But following the mandatory bone tests, required by the ACC to determine players’ age, Zafardeen was shocked to hear he failed the assessment – even though he was 14.
“It’s been a long road to be honest,” he said. “I was named in the squad and to hear I failed the bone test was really difficult.
“But the UAE selectors gave me another opportunity and put me straight into the Under-19 fold so I wasn’t fully out of their sights.”
He added: “I never gave up and my father (Imtiaz) has been really keen for me to do well and he said ‘don’t give up and just wait for the opportunity to come’.”
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Since then, he has remained on the UAE radar, continuing to impress the selectors, including head coach Aaqib Javed. Having missed the cut in last year’s Under-19 ACC Premier League in Kuwait, Zafardeen received the long-awaited news this month.
“It was pretty nerve-wrecking because when they announced the squad, my name was the last one to be announced,” he explained after being named in the UAE U-19 squad.
“We had a training session and once it finished, they told us to gather round and Aaqib got a piece of paper from his pocket and started reading out the names who had made it.
“He kept on calling out the names but I still didn’t hear mine. Finally he said my name and I was like ‘thank God’. I can’t really explain it. All these years I’ve been training so hard in trying to represent the country where I’ve lived for so long and it’s a huge opportunity which I’m ready to make the most of.”
Zafardeen, who paid tribute to all of his coaches, admits the six-team tournament will provide a stern test for himself and team-mates. “It’s going to be challenging,” the quick said. “There are some good teams, especially with Afghanistan there, but we’ve got a good chance to do well. It’s a young squad and we all know each other and I think this is a good year for us and I’m very optimistic,” he added.
