DUBAI // When Dougie Brown was confirmed as the new permanent head coach of UAE cricket earlier this week, his social media timeline was awash with good wishes.
The quantity of glad tidings he received, as well of the standing of most of the respondents, pointed to two things.
Firstly, as a character reference, it suggested the new man in charge of the national team is held in the highest regard. And, secondly, it went to show that so, too, is the job of UAE cricket coach.
Which is not always something that has been a given. For many years, cricket in this country was seen as being far beyond the mainstream, maybe even a hardship posting.
The standing of the game here, though, has changed almost in direct correlation to the altering Dubai skyline. Cricket in the UAE is increasingly well resourced, just as life is beyond the boundary.
__________________________________
Read more
■ Emirates Cricket Board: Dougie Brown appointed full-time UAE coach
■ Paul Radley: How can Dougie Brown take the UAE to the next level?
■ Mohammed Naveed: Dougie Brown the 'perfect' coach for UAE cricket
__________________________________
His wife Amelia responded to the good luck tweets by saying she is looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about with Dubai brunches she has heard about.
Meanwhile, one of his former colleagues at Warwickshire informed Brown he must make a trip to The Cheesecake Factory while he is here.
“What was interesting was, on the back of the announcement, how much positive feedback I had, and my family had,” Brown said, midway through the first day of his new job.
“When people knew my wife, me and our little one were moving out, they were delighted, and pretty jealous I think.
“Dubai is a great place to live, and a great place for young children to grow up. I am working in a place that inspires and motivates me to give the best of myself.”
While the extra-curricular trappings might be great, it is the cricket that is driving the former England and Scotland international.
Brown coveted the role and, although he initially thought he had missed out on the full-time post, he keenly took up a three-month interim spell in charge between February and May.
Given the results he oversaw in that time, it was no surprise the Emirates Cricket Board eventually moved to instil him permanently in the role.
He is delighted to be moving back into full-time employment for the first time since leaving English county cricket last year. To be doing so in Dubai is all the more inspiring, he says.
“Honestly, I think this is one of the most exciting places in world cricket,” Brown said.
Dougie Brown was the UAE’s interim coach between February and Mat. Satish Kumar / The National
“I don’t think we necessarily always understand that is the case because we just come to work. This place has got the best facilities — not some of the best, but the best — in world cricket.
“Knowing there are legends of the game, world-class players, coming through here all the time, I just think Dubai is turning itself into the destination for anybody who is aspiring to be in cricket.
“It is no coincidence you have Australia coming here before they went to India. The PSL [Pakistan Super League] was based here. A lot of the English counties come out here and use this as a training base before their season.
“It is an outstanding place to be, and if you can’t be motivated by that, you shouldn’t really be involved. I think it is a highly motivating place.”
The UAE is a place that has figured almost eerily in a number of his career benchmarks. Twenty years ago, he debuted for England in a rare one-day international series win in Sharjah.
Ten years after that, he played his last first-class match at the same stadium, an ICC Intercontinental Cup game against a UAE side including Rameez Shahzad and Ahmed Raza, who he will now be coaching.
“The UAE is a special place for me, making my England debut here, playing my last ever first-class match as a player, to go full circle to where I am now, is quite cool,” he said.
“Dubai has been a really good place for me, with good memories. It was a totally different place back then [in 1997]. The old airport, there were only a couple of hotels. We stayed in one of them, and it was just a desert, really.
“To come back here now and to see the glitz, and the way it has built up is phenomenal.”
Talking of returning to old haunts, Brown will be taking his new charges back to Edgbaston, where he was based for his entire playing career, later this month.
The national team are undertaking a week of training there before travelling to the Netherlands for three one-day internationals in July.
It is the first step on a journey that Brown hopes could lead the UAE to becoming the top Associate side in the world, and the players to get the recognition of contracts to play in the leading Twenty20 leagues.
“In the Netherlands, yes, we want to showcase our individual skills, but we want to be a better team than what they are,” he said.
“That is a mantra we want to take with us into every series. Just be a better team.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
