The UAE made a poor start to life under CP Rizwan’s captaincy after suffering a one-wicket loss to Kuwait in Oman.
The shock defeat in Muscat in the first game of the Asia Cup Qualifier means the national team are now in danger of missing out on fixtures against India and Pakistan on home soil.
The four-team event in Muscat has one place on offer at the main event in Dubai and Sharjah next week.
UAE now face Singapore on Monday and Hong Kong on Wednesday knowing only two victories will do - and even then it might potentially not be enough.
The manner of defeat matched the disrupted build-up to the series, during which Rizwan replaced Ahmed Raza as captain.
Raza had captained the national team in 26 of their 61 T20 internationals until this point.
In matches in which he had led, the side won 18 times. That included a run of eight wins in 10 games, which culminated in their qualification for the T20 World Cup next month.
The fact they have reached that point under his stewardship was all the more remarkable, given the context in which he received the armband.
The Sharjah-born spin-bowler took over a side in crisis, riven by the suspension of a raft of senior players on corruption charges.
He paid for a run of faltering form in a different format. Raza was replaced as captain after the UAE lost three one-day internationals on tour in Scotland this month – and yet has so far been retained in 50-over cricket.
Rizwan’s elevation to the captaincy was equally unforeseen. With an average of 16.66 and a strike-rate of 101 in the format, he had been out of the side since last year, and played no part in the qualifying process for the World Cup. He also has little captaincy experience of which to speak.
The decision to replace Raza with Rizwan in the day’s turnaround between the tour of Scotland and that of Oman was therefore a shock one.
It did appear to guarantee Rizwan a benevolent start, though. The UAE are ranked far higher than any of their opponents at the Qualifier in Muscat, with Kuwait, their opening day opponents, 15 places below them in the ICC standings.
Their superiority showed at the start, as Chirag Suri and Muhammad Waseem shared 78 in under nine overs for the first wicket.
Suri and Vriitya Aravind were then reunited at the site of many of their past successes, as they had an alliance worth 81 for the second wicket.
The UAE’s tally of 173 for five from their 20 overs should have been beyond Kuwait, but they rallied brilliantly.
They were well-placed after starting their innings with a 52-run stand for the first wicket.
Although the chase stuttered after Ravija Sandaruwan went for 34, Kuwait refused to be cowed.
They made it across the winning line with a ball to spare, as Mohammed Shafeeq hit the penultimate ball of the game to the boundary rope.
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3ECompany%20name%3A%20Znap%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarted%3A%202017%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EFounder%3A%20Uday%20Rathod%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EBased%3A%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIndustry%3A%20FinTech%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EFunding%20size%3A%20%241m%2B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EInvestors%3A%20Family%2C%20friends%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Biog
Age: 50
Known as the UAE’s strongest man
Favourite dish: “Everything and sea food”
Hobbies: Drawing, basketball and poetry
Favourite car: Any classic car
Favourite superhero: The Hulk original
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
