As Pakistan prepare for the upcoming Test series with the West Indies, the Asian giants will set about preserving their unbeaten record in the UAE. That they rose to the top of the ICC rankings without playing Test cricket on home soil for seven years was a remarkable feat.
Bar Afghanistan, no other side has had to face such adversity; playing more than 1,000 miles from the villages, towns and cities they grew up in and without the ardent Pakistani support guaranteed in Karachi or Lahore. But in the UAE, they have found home comforts. There is a large Pakistani expat community, unrivalled facilities and they are treated like royalty by their nation’s cricketing fans when spotted.
Zulfiqar Babar revealed to Sport360 in 2015 that he plans on permanently relocating to the UAE, while other players have also forged a strong connection with a country which has provided the backdrop for some of the most memorable moments of their careers. It is where Pakistan has rebuilt itself in Misbah-ul-Haq’s image, where Younis Khan became his nation’s highest ever Test run scorer.
Not only has the UAE been kind to Pakistan on an international level, it has also given players a place to earn money in their off-season and familiarise themselves with UAE conditions in order to make the transition to international cricket easier.
The UAE domestic game may not be in the rudest of health right now – a lack of matches longer than 20 overs hindering the national team – but some of the Pakistan’s brightest stars have plied their trade here, giving UAE players the chance to compete alongside some of the world’s best.
Bludgeoning one-day opener Sharjeel Khan, for instance, played in the UAE for five years. In 2015, representing GMW Sharjah Royal Challengers, he was named both batsman of the tournament and man of the series in the Superstars T20 Cricket Cup. He is not alone. Two of the most valuable assets in the current Pakistan Test squad trod similar paths on the UAE’s domestic circuit.
Asad Shafiq has established himself as an integral part of Pakistan’s late middle-order, working supremely with the tail in eking out valuable added runs – time and again rescuing Pakistan. Since 2015, he has scored 897 runs in 11 matches at 47.21 and registered four of his nine Test centuries.
UAE domestic experience: Sharjeel Khan.
Making an even greater impact in the past two years has been Yasir Shah. The leg-spinner emerged from the wilderness in 2014 as the man tasked with leading Pakistan’s spin attack in the absence of destructive off-spinner Saeed Ajmal. Yasir and his team have never looked back, the leggie going on to become the No. 1 Test spinner in the world and standing on the brink of being the second-fastest bowler in history to 100 wickets – a feat he could achieve in Dubai this week.
The Pakistani pair have not just played the bulk of their international cricket here. Both lined up in the same Danube Lions team for two years, alongside some of the UAE’s top cricketers. For Yasir, in particular, that spell in the UAE was significant. It was while playing for Danube that he discovered he was in-line to make his Test debut against Australia.
“I was in Abu Dhabi, we were playing the semi-final match for Danube and I got a call from Pakistan saying that I have been called back to the camp,” Yasir tells Sport360. “I was very excited that I was in the Pakistan team and would have my name in the Pakistani Test squad. We won the semi-final so I went there very happy.”
Yasir was integral in that Al-Aqil Ramadan Trophy win, but with the bat rather than the ball. He scored 75 from 49 balls batting at four, shaping Danube’s innings alongside then captain Rohan Mustafa as the duo put on 84 for the fifth wicket.
“When he first came to the UAE, Yasir was more interested in batting than bowling and he’d give us a really good start,” UAE all-rounder Mustafa recalls. “In a few matches I sent him in at one down because he was very confident. He’d tell me, ‘send me in Rohan and I will do it for you’. In the semi-final in Abu Dhabi he scored 70-odd runs and we won it because of that innings.
“And we were playing against a very good team. They had Abdul Razzaq, Imran Nazir and other Pakistan internationals.”
The UAE game peaked domestically in 2014, with Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Riaz Afridi and Mohammad Sami among the raft of Pakistan players in the country at the time. The UAE national team benefitted as a result, the Pakistan boom coinciding with UAE’s qualification for the 2014 World T20 and 2015 World Cup.
Playing against and alongside such stars helped the likes of Mustafa greatly, the UAE player fondly recalling the time he despatched Sohail Khan for six as the moment which gave him the belief that he could play on the big stages of world tournaments.
“I think 2011-2014 were the best seasons for UAE cricket when those international guys were coming here,” Mustafa explains. “If you look, the UAE qualified for the World T20 and for the World Cup in that time. It was very good for UAE cricket.”
It was also very good for Dubai’s Danube Lions, who claimed a number of trophies with Yasir and Asad in their setup. Danube owner Anis Sajan presided over the arrival of the talented pair, which all started with a phone call from Misbah.
“Misbah is a friend of mine and he called to say ‘I have a leg-spinner in my team, who plays for the team Sui Gas, so would you like to try him out in the off-season?’” Sajan recalled. “When the captain of the Pakistan team makes an offer like that, you think ‘why not?’
“Yasir Shah then also spoke to me over the phone and said ‘Yes Anis, I want to come to Dubai and play cricket.’ When he came here, the whole country had a paucity of leg-spinners.
“From then on it was all Yasir Shah being the star bowler and getting us wickets regularly. From the time he played until he got a call [to play for Pakistan’s Test team] it was always a win-win situation for both of us.”
Yasir echoes that sentiment, his two years in the UAE helping to familiarise him with conditions and making the step up to Test cricket a less daunting one.
“I have played in so many matches here and I have played in every cricket ground – Dubai Sports City, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi,” Yasir says. “So I had a sound idea about the wickets in each ground and that experience has truly helped me a lot in playing cricket everywhere else.
“I have played domestic cricket here in the UAE and I have played international matches here as well. So I never felt like I was playing away from home at all.”
For a nation exiled due to political instability and safety concerns, finding a home away from home has been precious and the UAE has provided that environment. In return, Pakistani cricket has provided the UAE role models who have made a positive impact on the domestic game.
“When I first saw Shafiq practising with the other boys, he was the guy who came half an hour early and would go half an hour late to make sure he did his basic regime of gym or running,” Danube chief Sajan notes. “A lot of people work hard but not everyone works hard with such dedication and passion and I could see that in Asad Shafiq. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes on to make big runs for Pakistan because he has got the temperament. It’s temperament that separates the men from the boys in Test cricket and both Yasir Shah and Asad Shafiq have it.”
Yasir’s indelible smile beams through TV screens when he’s playing and follows him everywhere he goes. It is the happy-go-lucky personality, combined with a hunger for wickets, which made the ‘Smiling Assasin’ a popular player on the UAE circuit.
“We were good friends outside, we used to play snooker when we were free and the main thing I saw in him was that once the match was finished he left everything in the ground and then just wanted us to enjoy ourselves and enjoy life,” Mustafa says of Yasir.
“That was the main thing with him, even if he went for runs he was like ‘hey it’s cricket, never mind’. I like that about him very much.”
Sharjah’s historic stadium has proved a fruitful venue for Pakistan.
The humility, down-to-earth approach from both Yasir and Shafiq is no act.
“I celebrate everything in life; I always want to be happy,” Yasir says. “When I am performing, I am very happy and even on the days I am not performing, I still try to be happy about it. A person should always have consistency in their temperament and should always be humble.”
Yasir remains in touch with his Danube team-mates, with Sajan and Mustafa radiating pride when discussing the achievements of the leg-spinner and Shafiq. Unfortunately, it already feels like a bygone era for UAE cricket. The funds are no longer there across the leagues and with some of the biggest teams either folding or considering their place in the domestic game, the same desire to compete for the big names in Pakistan doesn’t seem to remain.
The UAE has endured a largely miserable time since the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and there is a real frustration among many that cricket is moving backwards rather than forwards.
“We were performing outstandingly throughout [2013-14] and I believe that now these international players from Test nations are not coming here, our cricket will come down,” Mustafa says. “If you see the teams now, they are not good. If you don’t have good competition in the UAE then I don’t think cricket can improve.”
It would be too simple to put UAE’s recent struggles down to a lack of influx of talented foreign players, but there is obviously a link. Yasir still lends advice to his ex-colleagues when he can and insists he will come back and play for Danube once his international days are over.
One only hopes the UAE won’t have to wait until then to regain its footing as a leading Associate Nation.
