While the attention of much of the UAE sporting public is on the national football team’s bid for a place at the 2026 World Cup in Doha, on the other side of the region the cricketers are aiming to do the same.
Cosmin Olaroiu’s footballers face matches against Oman and Qatar in Doha on Saturday and Tuesday. If they top that three team group, they will qualify for next year’s World Cup in North America.
Cricket’s T20 World Cup will also be played next year, in India and Sri Lanka, and the UAE hope to be part of it.
The Lalchand Rajput-coached team are playing in a qualifying tournament on familiar territory at the Oman Cricket Academy in Al Amerat, on the outskirts of Muscat.
The T20 World Cup Asia and East Asia Pacific Qualifier carries three places for the World Cup, which is due to take place in February and March next year.
The Qualifier is slightly different to previous ones. In the recent past, the UAE had to contend with the best in Asia to reach the World Cup.
This time, they are joined by sides from the East Asia Pacific region of cricket.
Format
Nine teams are competing in the Qualifier, and are divided into three pools of three.
The top two sides from each group advance to the second round, the Super Six phase.
The top three teams at the end of that six-team, round-robin league will qualify for the World Cup.
Pools
Group 1: UAE, Malaysia, Qatar.
Group 2: Japan, Kuwait, Nepal.
Group 3: Oman, Papua New Guinea, Samoa
UAE squad
Muhammad Waseem (captain), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Jonathan Figy, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Mohammed Farooq, Mohammed Irfan, Rahul Chopra, Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Zahid Ali
Star players
Muhammad Waseem. The opener has great memories of playing in Muscat. He scored a hundred there in the Qualifier final as UAE reached the 2022 World Cup, and did the same ahead of this year’s Asia Cup.
Junaid Siddique. The fast bowler has had a brilliant few weeks. He was among the leading wicket-takers at the Asia Cup, then a few days later attracted a bid of $170,000 at the first ILT20 auction.
Mohammad Rohid. The left-arm seamer is relatively new to the national team set-up, having debuted in the summer. His capabilities were already well known, though, as shown by his $140,000 deal to play in Season 4 of the ILT20.
Fixtures
Wednesday, October 8: UAE v Qatar (2.30pm)
Friday, October 10: UAE v Malaysia (10am)
The Super Six phase will be played from October 12-17
The opposition
The UAE are the highest ranked side in the competition, and should start the tournament as one of the favourites to qualify, but there are some potential threats.
They have been used to vying with Nepal for places at major events in both men’s, women’s and age-group cricket. Some times with happy consequences, but some times with miserable ones.
Nepal are in stunning form. They flew to Muscat on the back of an extraordinary series win against the West Indies in their first series against a Test-playing nation, in Sharjah.
Oman are a new-look side and have struggled of late, but are no strangers to major events. Plus they have home advantage.
Papua New Guinea qualified for the last T20 World Cup, in the United States and the Caribbean.
Samoa are a largely unknown quantity, other than the very familiar figure of Ross Taylor. The former New Zealand captain reversed his retirement from the sport to represent the country of his heritage in the Qualifier.
