England’s reputation in cricket might be being buffeted from all directions at present, given their abysmal display in the Ashes and the ensuing late night drinks that required police intervention.
But when UAE meet them in the Under 19 World Cup in the Caribbean on Thursday, the players will be under no illusions they are going up against giants of the sport.
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
England are, of course, the reigning 50 over world champions in senior cricket. And their age-group side trounced the defending U19 champions, Bangladesh, in their tournament opener on Sunday.
UAE’s players, though, are sanguine about their prospects. They started the competition in convincing fashion themselves, with a comfortable win over Canada.
That 49-run win in St Kitts was headlined by a player whose skills have been likened to those of Ben Stokes, the great England all-rounder.
“Ben Stokes has been one of my idols for a while now,” said Ali Naseer, who blazed 73 from 50 balls against Canada, and also opens the bowling for UAE.
“He bowls high 130kph and is a very aggressive batsman. My aim is to replicate what Stokes does and be a match winner.”
Naseer is one of nine ICC Academy players in the 15-man squad at the World Cup. The academy’s coach, Qasim Ali, was unsurprised by his charge’s excellence in the tournament opener.
“The way he plays is similar to Stokes in that he is quite fearless with the ball and his temperament is quite aggressive,” Qasim said.
“He has some pace, even if an injury last year did hamper his pace development slightly. As a batter, he is an aggressive left-handed middle-order player with a range of shots.
“He has been working on batting against spin, as that is predominantly what he will be facing in the back end of games, focusing on power-hitting and hitting the ball out of the park.
“It was no surprise for me that [against Canada] he hit sixes for fun.”
Naseer is well aware the challenge will be more acute against England, but he echoed the sentiments of his colleague Kai Smith in suggesting UAE will play without fear.
“Playing against England will come with its challenges as they are a Test-playing nation,” Naseer said.
“However our mindset is to play the ball on its merit and not look at the name.
“Our next two matches are against two Test-playing nations so of course there will be nerves involved but the players are excited.”
Naseer, who attends Gems FirstPoint School, The Villa, was born in Karachi and has lived in Dubai since he was four years old.
He says his side were encouraged by the way they started the tournament, but they are aware of where they need to improve against England and Bangladesh.
“It’s always great to get a win, especially in an Under 19 World Cup,” he said.
“The feeling was unmatched more so as I was able to contribute to my teams success. My team and I were definitely satisfied with the result.
“I think scoring 285 runs has given our batting a lot of confidence as we haven’t had the best of time in terms of batting in the recent past.
“As a batting unit if we can keep wickets in hand against England then we should be able to get a good score to defend.
“In terms of bowling we need to ensure that we are tight in the middle overs and ensure that we don’t leak runs in the last powerplay."
At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
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When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
More from our Neighbourhood series:
RESULTS: 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING - EUROPE
Albania 0 Italy 1
Finland 2 Turkey 2
Macedonia 4 Liechtenstein
Iceland 2 Kosovo 0
Israel 0 Spain 1
Moldova 0 Austria 1
Serbia 1 Georgia 0
Ukraine 0 Croatia 2
Wales 0 Ireland 1
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
RESULT
Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
