England all-rounder Moeen Ali is the icon player for Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10. Antonie Robertson/The National
England all-rounder Moeen Ali is the icon player for Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10. Antonie Robertson/The National
England all-rounder Moeen Ali is the icon player for Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10. Antonie Robertson/The National
England all-rounder Moeen Ali is the icon player for Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10. Antonie Robertson/The National

Cricket

When is the Abu Dhabi T10 and which team is Mohammed Amir playing for?

All you need to know about the 10-over competition in the capital city next month

Paul Radley
Paul Radley
Dubai

October 22, 2019

  • English
  • Arabic

The T10 league will move from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi for its third season.

It will now be known as Abu Dhabi T10, and is scheduled to be played in the capital for at least the next five seasons.

The 10-over competition involves eight franchises, and some of the sport’s most recognisable players.

It has been running for two years. Kerala Kings, a now defunct team who were led by Eoin Morgan, won the first tournament in front of packed stands in Sharjah in 2017.

The Northern Warriors will be back to defend the title they won 12 months ago, with Robin Singh and Daren Sammy, the victorious coach and captain combination, returning.

When is it?

The tournament starts on November 15, with the finals day scheduled for November 24. All matches will be played at the Zayed Cricket Stadium.

Which players are involved?

Morgan, who captained England to World Cup glory in the summer, will take charge of Delhi Bulls, where he will link up with coach Stephen Fleming.

Sammy, a two-time World T20 winning captain, leads a team full of West Indian talent, including Andre Russell, Nicholas Pooran, and Lendl Simmons.

T20 veterans like Shane Watson, Kieron Pollard, Thisara Perera and Lasith Malinga will also be here – as well as a host of Pakistan stars…

Pakistan stars

Mohammed Amir (Team Abu Dhabi)

Just as he was in 2017 when the league launched, Amir was the first pick at the draft in October. He joined the new side representing Abu Dhabi.

The storied left-arm fast-bowler has more time on his hands for league cricket, having announced his retirement from Tests in July, aged 27.

Pakistan pacer Mohammed Amir. Getty
Pakistan pacer Mohammed Amir. Getty

Mohammed Hasnain (Delhi Bulls)

Caught the eye as the fastest bowler in the Pakistan Super League last season when he was an 18-year-old rookie with Quetta Gladiators.

That earned him a place in Pakistan’s squad at the World Cup, and meant he was hot property at the T10 draft, too.

Wahab Riaz (Northern Warriors)

Wahab is one of only three players – Pooran and UAE’s Imran Haider are the others – who have winners’ medals from both T10 seasons.

He has been retained by defending champions Northern Warriors. Like his fellow Pakistan left-armer Amir, Wahab also retired from Tests earlier this year.

Why are Qalandars in it?

There are only two teams remaining in the same guise from last season – Maratha Arabians and Northern Warriors – but one of the new franchises is more recognisable than any.

Lahore Qalandars, the PSL side, have entered a team in the 10-over tournament.

Although they will be known for the purposes of this tournament simply as Qalandars, they have a number of household names from Pakistan.

Shahid Afridi is joining them for this tournament, while Mohammed Hafeez, Faheem Ashraf, Imad Wasim and Haris Rauf are all set to feature.

Qalandars been given an exemption from the rule requiring them to have UAE players, and they only have four overseas players in all.

T20 veterans Luke Ronchi and Chris Jordan will be part of the side, as will two emerging talents from the UK, Tom Banton, and Phil Salt – who was actually part of the Qalandars side that won the Abu Dhabi T20 last year.

Teams

Pool A

Bangla Tigers

New team

Coach: Aftab Ahmed

Squad: Thisara Perera, Anamul Haque, Mahedi Hasan, Farhad Reza, Yasir Ali, Robert Frylinck, Colin de Grandhomme, Colin Ingram, Andre Fletcher, Rilee Rossouw, Qais Ahmed, James Faulkner, Chirag Suri, Junaid Siddique, Abu Hider, Arafat Sunny

Deccan Gladiators

Last season: Last (as Sindhis)

Coach: Mushtaq Ahmed

Squad: Shane Watson, Anton Devcich, Kieron Pollard, Tymal Mills, Zahir Khan, Mohammed Shahzad, Fawad Ahmed, Anwar Ali, Zahoor Khan, Asif Ali, Chandrapaul Hemraj, Mason Crane, Bhanuka Rakapaksa

Delhi Bulls

Last season: Fourth (as Bengal Tigers)

Coach: Stephen Fleming

Squad: Eoin Morgan, Mohammed Nabi, Zaheer Khan, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Kusal Perera, Adil Rashid, Mohammed Hasnain, Sherfane Rutherford, Ali Khan, Aamer Yamin, Mohammed Usman, Waheed Ahmed, Tobias Visee, Paul Stirling

Karnataka Tuskers

New team

Coach: Tom Moody

Squad: Hashim Amla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Pat Brown, Evin Lewis, Kesrick Williams, Johnson Charles, Ross Whiteley, Fabian Allen, Shapoor Zadran, Ahmed Raza, Asif Mumtaz, Marlon Samuels, Natham Rimmington, Shafiqullah

Pool B

Maratha Arabians

Last season: Third

Coach: Andy Flower

Squad: Chris Lynn, Dwayne Bravo, Lasith Malinga, Hazratullah Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammed Irfan, Dasun Shanaka, Chadwick Walton, Wanindu Hasaranga, James Fuller, Adam Lyth, Shiraz Ahmed, Mohammed Qasim, Nasir Aziz

Qalandars

New team

Coach: Aaqib Javed

Squad: Shahid Afridi, Sohail Akhtar, Luke Ronchi, Chris Jordan, Tom Banton, Mohammed Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Phil Salt, Imran Nazir, Maaz Khan, Majid Ali, Haris Rauf, Ahsan Mirza, Dilbar Hussain

Northern Warriors

Last season: Champions

Coach: Robin Singh

Squad: Daren Sammy, Andre Russell, Wahab Riaz, Nicholas Pooran, Chris Green, Sam Billings, Pravin Tambe, Lendl Simmons, Sikandar Raza, Ansh Tandon, Amir Hayat, Mark Deyal, George Munsey, Karim Janat

Team Abu Dhabi

New team

Coach: Trevor Bayliss

Squad: Moeen Ali, Mohammed Amir, Harry Gurney, Luke Wright, Corey Anderson, Lewis Gregory, Ben Laughlin, Niroshan Dickwella, Richard Gleeson, Rohan Mustafa, Rameez Shahzad, Hayden Walsh Jr, Alex Davies

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Transgender report

The Birkin bag is made by Hermès. 
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.

Tomorrow 2021
Brief scores:

Day 2

England: 277 & 19-0

West Indies: 154

The lowdown

Rating: 4/5

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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  

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