DUBAI // The UAE national team will comprise mostly professional players from now on after the Emirates Cricket Board confirmed details of their first central contracts.
Eight players have been handed the long-awaited full-time deals, with the board providing cricketers with employment visas for the first time.
The players, who have been granted two-year contracts, have been selected mostly on promise. Among them, only Rohan Mustafa and Mohammed Shahzad have played any significant amount of international cricket to date.
Four others, who have been given annual, part-time retainers, but will continue with their day jobs, are the longest established, most influential players in the side.
They are Amjad Javed, the captain for next month’s series in Scotland, Shaiman Anwar, the vice captain, Ahmed Raza, and Mohammed Naveed.
Until now, all cricketers in this country have been amateurs, released for international duty at the discretion of their employers.
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According to Zayed Abbas, the ECB board member, the move towards professionalism will greatly benefit the performance of the national team.
“We are committed to doing the best we can, and we are moving forward,” Abbas said.
“For the first time in the UAE, we will have professional contracts. We are proud to say that, from today onwards, we are professional.”
The fact only eight of the team are fully contracted, though, is an indicator of the fact the board are having to balance finite funds.
Cricket’s administrators here have been talking about rolling out the central contract scheme for as long as nine months now.
Resolving the finer points of the finances and the personnel has meant a lengthy delay, however. Some of the players are even understood to have quit their previous jobs some while in advance of being given the deals to play cricket.
The board do have commercial backers such as OSN, the television network who have confirmed they are extending their sponsorship of the team.
However, much of the income that has allowed the ECB to offer pro terms was unlocked by the national team securing one day-international status, as well as playing at last year’s World Cup.
If that status was downgraded and funding was cut, perpetuating professionalism might be problematic, but Waleed Bukhatir, the chief selector, said progress will continue.
“We need to work with the resources that are available to the ECB,” Bukhatir said.
“Being a first-ever initiative, we need to start somewhere with central contracts for players.
“It will definitely enhance their performances. Being full-time cricketers from morning to evening, they will be performing better, giving more to the ECB, as opposed to being employed somewhere else then coming in the evening and playing.
“Systems are made only to be better. We made this programme so we can enhance the performance of the team.
“We do realise there is support that might not be there if the team doesn’t perform. But we want to be optimistic.
“We were realistic in deciding on this programme. It is meant to continue, even if there was any cut from the ICC in terms of the financial support they give.”
In addition to the 12 paid cricketers, there are three non-contracted players in the UAE squad to face Scotland: Krishnachandran Karate, Fayyaz Ahmed, and Laxman Sreekumar.
Paul Franks, who has been appointed interim UAE coach for six weeks, will rejoin the squad in the UK. He returned back from Dubai this week on compassionate grounds after the death of his father.
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