The possibility of the UAE staging a World Cup in cricket for the first time has moved a step closer after the ICC confirmed they are moving ahead with planning for this year’s T20 event here.
A final decision on where the tournament will be played will be taken later this month.
However, the prospect of it being switched from India to the Emirates has grown stronger this week.
Senior officials from the Board of Control for Cricket in India have been in Dubai in recent days to finalise plans for the remainder of the suspended 2021 IPL season in the Emirates.
The decision was taken to relocate that competition given the effect of the coronavirus pandemic in India.
The IPL season will be played to its conclusion in a window just preceding the scheduled 20-over over World Cup.
Although a decision has yet to be taken, the game’s governing body are now pressing on with plans to stage that event in the UAE, too – as well as possibly one other venue in the region.
“The ICC Board has requested management focus its planning efforts for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on the event being staged in the UAE with the possibility of including another venue in the Middle East,” the ICC said in a statement.
“A final decision on the host country will be taken later this month. The Board also confirmed that the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event regardless of where the event is played.”
Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah have an established pedigree for staging international cricket, and the Emirates have been on standby to stage the 2021 T20 World Cup for some while now.
The UAE’s reputation for delivering major matches in exacting conditions was further enhanced during last year’s IPL.
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Mumbai Indians crowned IPL 2020 champions in Dubai
The 2020 IPL season was regarded as a huge success, having been played in biosecure conditions at three venues across the Emirates.
The potential “other venue in the Middle East” is intriguing. The Oman Cricket Academy ovals in Al Amerat, just outside Muscat, are ICC-accredited grounds that have hosted one-day international and T20I cricket in the past.
They are well-appointed ovals, with a glorious backdrop at the base of the Hajar Mountains. However, fan attendance could be an issue, with no permanent spectator facilities.
It is likely the ICC would want spectators present in the stands at the T20 World Cup.
Although fans will not be permitted to attend the PSL when it resumes in Abu Dhabi this month, sports events in this country are starting to welcome back supporters.
A limited crowd was permitted in to football's President's Cup final in Al Ain last month. The national football team will also hope to be well backed when supporters are admitted to their World Cup Qualifiers in Dubai this month.
Those fixtures will be open to 30 per cent capacity, to those fully vaccinated and bearing a negative Covid-19 test result within 48 hours of match day.
The news about potentially staging the T20 World Cup was the second major boost for UAE cricket on Tuesday, after it was confirmed both the 20- and 50-over World Cups are set for an expansion.
From 2024 to 2031, the 50-over tournament will be a 14-team, 54-match competition. The T20 event will expand to 20 teams and 55 matches.
The UAE, as well as all other nations from beyond the established Test elite, have been constrained by the fact the 50-over World Cup is currently a 10-team competition.
The newly-revised format will return to that of the 2003 tournament in South Africa.
That means having two groups of seven, with the top three in each group progressing to a Super Six stage, followed by semi-finals and final.
“Having the ICC event schedule confirmed through to 2031 is a significant step forward for cricket and will form the basis of our growth strategy for the next decade,” Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s acting chief executive, said.
“The revised approach to selecting hosts for our events will give us much more flexibility to grow the game and engage new fans.”
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
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.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
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Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
Results:
5pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1.400m | Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic (PA) Prestige Dh 110,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Saab, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Majd Al Gharbia, Saif Al Balushi, Ridha ben Attia
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Championship (PA) Listed Dh 180,000 1,600m | Winner: RB Money To Burn, Pat Cosgrave, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh 70,000 2,200m | Winner: AF Kafu, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 2,400m | Winner: Brass Ring, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Captain Marvel
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn
4/5 stars
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
