UAE’s leading cricketers could be forgiven for watching on with envy as their neighbours in Oman started their home World Cup in rampant fashion on Sunday.
Even more so given the way Aqib Ilyas took to the world stage so adeptly, in making a cool half-century in the 10-wicket win over Papua New Guinea. His former colleagues in the UAE might have felt as though he was living their life for them.
The 29-year-old all-rounder studied civil engineering in Dubai from 2010. In the four years he lived in UAE, he excelled in domestic cricket to the extent he was invited to train with the national team.
He was flattered, but his heart remained in Oman, where he had lived since he was six months old.
“There was a thought in my mind that I should [stay and play as a pro in UAE], but at that time I wasn’t that into cricket,” Ilyas said.
“I just used to go and play in open tournaments. When I came back to Oman, I didn’t play for one year.
“My brother [former Oman player Adnan] said, ‘You should play, you have the potential to do very well’.
“That boosted me, and made me want to represent the Oman team. My family is in Oman. That is why I wanted to play for them and not UAE.”
The lure of home must have been strong, as there was a vast disparity in opportunities for cricketers in UAE and Oman at the time.
UAE domestic cricketers routinely get to play at the three venues which are hosting the T20 World Cup.
By contrast, when Ilyas left for his studies, there was not one grass oval in Oman yet. He has never questioned his decision, though, and is reaping the rewards now.
“My parents sent me to Dubai, saying it would be good for studies, and told me how I should learn to live on my own and that it would be good for my future,” Ilyas said.
“For my cricket, it was a very positive experience. Many international players were there, the likes of [Pakistan international] Yasir Shah, Asad Shafiq.
“I brought that positivity with me back to Oman. By the time I got back to Oman there were two turf grounds here, and the standard of club cricket was very strong.
“Facing players like Bilal Khan and Kaleemullah every day means you improve over time, plus we have good coaches who improve our technique.”
“His brother Adnan was the most talented player Oman has ever had in the national team,” said Pankaj Khimji, the chairman of Oman Cricket.
“He played some scintillating knocks, all over the world. Aqib is even more talented, and even more technically sound.
“He is a little laid back — David Gower-esque — but is a beautiful timer of the ball. He has an excellent temperament when he gets going.”
Ilyas is producing the results to go with the talent, too. He averages 62 in 15 one-day internationals so far and, last year in Kathmandu, he scored centuries in successive ODIs.
Now he wants to make a name for himself on the biggest platform he has yet been given.
Oman face Bangladesh on Wednesday night in Al Amerat, and a win would go a long way to securing their advance to the next phase of competition — meaning a potential trip back to UAE for Ilyas.
“I want to do really well at the World Cup,” he said. “The whole world is watching you, and your talent is exposed.”
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
