Kavisha Kumari dedicated her match-winning turn in what she termed UAE’s “greatest win” to her recuperating mother.
The 19-year-old batter finished unbeaten on 41 as the national team executed a stunning heist to beat Zimbabwe off the last ball in the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier on Wednesday night.
The extraordinary denouement to the game at the Tolerance Oval brought with it jubilant scenes of celebration from the UAE players. After which, the majority peeled away to repeat the revelry with their families beyond the picket fence.
Kumari’s parents were conspicuous by their absence. Father Jagath and mother Nalani are permanent fixtures at UAE matches, supporting their daughter.
And yet they have missed this competition while Nalani continues her recovery at home from an illness which saw her hospitalised for two weeks last month.
Kumari’s training ahead of the Qualifier was disrupted as she helped care for her sick mother. It has scarcely showed, though, as her performances have been typically excellent.
She averages 110 in the competition so far, lifting her career average to 42.85, which is the second highest in the history of women’s T20 international cricket.
“Mum was hospitalised for two weeks in August,” Kumari said.
“She is slowly recovering, but it has been a very tough run. She actually wanted to come for these matches in Abu Dhabi, but me and dad told her she had to stay as we didn’t want her to risk it.
“These runs I have been scoring are all for her. I also changed my jersey number. I used to wear No 23, now I am wearing No 7 as it is my mum’s birthday on October 7.
“To honour her, I changed my jersey number, and as you can see it has worked really well.
“I scored 40 against Thailand [in the opening match]. That day was an off day [from work] and all the parents came in.
“I was checking the stands to see if they surprised me. Unfortunately they were staying at home and watching.
“It is tough on me, but when I’m at the ground I don’t think about it. I just get into my zone. She is recovering slowly and everything is moving forward.”
While her parents have been consigned to watching from home on the livestream on the ICC’s website, Kumari is grateful for how her colleagues have looked out for her.
“I can imagine they will be talking [at the monitor] saying, ‘Kavi, don’t get out. Don’t do anything stupid,’” she said of her parents back at home.
“They have been supporting me massively over the phone. It is emotional that they are not there, as they have always been there for all my matches.
“Since August that’s changed as we can’t leave mum alone. I’ve also got to thank my teammates and their parents, who have made sure I’ve been comfortable and treated me as if I’m their own daughter.
“Thanks to that, it has felt like they are there with me, even though they are not there.”
Defeats to Thailand and Papua New Guinea in their opening two matches ruled UAE out of contention for qualification for the World Cup in South Africa.
They bounced back in sensational style to shock a Zimbabwe side who were hitherto undefeated, and who has comfortably beaten them in a warm-up T20I in Dubai a week earlier.
“It would have been much better if I had stayed at the wicket in the PNG game as there is a high chance we could have won the game,” she said.
“But defeating a Test nation is a big deal and for me to contribute to the last over was important.
“I was hesitant over whether to go for it or not from the 15th over onwards. There was a great value on my wicket as I felt I could change the game.
“The three runs off that wide gave us a massive chance to make a comeback at the end. Honestly, I would say this is the greatest win for us.
“In the losses we had before, we were not trashed. We played well and gave our all. We lost by bare minimum margins. It means our players know what we are doing, it just wasn’t out day.
“Beating higher ranked teams gives you a boost, and we always have that self-belief. We have dragged all the games to the 19th and 20th overs.
“With the young team that we have, we are really proud of the way we are playing.”
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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.”
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Men from Barca's class of 99
Crystal Palace - Frank de Boer
Everton - Ronald Koeman
Manchester City - Pep Guardiola
Manchester United - Jose Mourinho
Southampton - Mauricio Pellegrino
The biog
Name: James Mullan
Nationality: Irish
Family: Wife, Pom; and daughters Kate, 18, and Ciara, 13, who attend Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS)
Favourite book or author: “That’s a really difficult question. I’m a big fan of Donna Tartt, The Secret History. I’d recommend that, go and have a read of that.”
Dream: “It would be to continue to have fun and to work with really interesting people, which I have been very fortunate to do for a lot of my life. I just enjoy working with very smart, fun people.”
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
MEDIEVIL%20(1998)
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The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
