DHAKA // These are strange times for UAE cricket. For much of the past year, it felt as though the game was falling apart in the emirates, as the national team could scarcely force a win of any sort.
The respect the side had earned for itself in qualifying for successive global events had become a crumbling edifice. Life looked bleak.
And now, some light. Brilliant, sparkling light, in fact. Three wins from three, against the two top teams from beyond the Test sphere, as well as the side that thrashed them in their own back yard just over three months ago.
Qualification for the main phase of the Asia Cup, and thus matches against the stellar names of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, is now within their grasp.
And, as if all that was not surreal enough, the cricketers of the new-look UAE national team are the darlings of some sizable crowds in Bangladesh. Heady days, indeed.
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“These crowds are fantastic, I love Bangladesh,” Mohammed Naveed, the UAE match-winner in the six-wicket win over Hong Kong, said.
“The crowd that comes to watch want to support a hero. I’ve done well, I am proud of how I did, and the public were happy with it, too.”
Playing the opening two matches of this event in Fatullah has meant no television coverage, but the UAE’s fixtures have brought with them substantial crowds.
The venue, in the south of Bangladesh’s densely-populated capital city, is around 35kms from the team hotel in central Dhaka.
When they travelled there to train on the eve of the first match against Afghanistan, the journey took nearly two hours, even with police outriders chaperoning their bus.
Both match days have coincided with days off for the majority of the Dhaka workforce. As a result, traffic has been slightly easier - and support inside the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium has been substantial.
On Friday, when the UAE won by 16 runs against Afghanistan, the side of the stadium nearest the entry gate was 80 per cent full.
The match against Hong Kong fell on International Mother Language Day, a public holiday, and queues snaked around the perimeter ahead of the start.
Naveed, whose only exposure to cricket when he first arrived in the UAE was in tape ball matches in Fujairah, clearly savoured the attention.
His defining effort with the ball included clean bowling three batsmen, sending the stumps flying in the process.
“I enjoy getting wickets like this, too,” Naveed said. “Seeing the stumps cartwheeling excites me. Feeling all these people are excited as well, that is the biggest happiness I get.”
The six-wicket win over Hong Kong marked quite a turnaround from the series the sides played in Dubai at the end of last year, which the away team entirely dominated.
Simon Cook, the Hong Kong coach, said there was no hint of over-confidence among his players, though.
“The UAE team we played in Dubai was different to the team who turned out here,” Cook said.
“They have more backbone and nous than the team we faced in the UAE, so there was no complacency at all.”
Even a narrow loss in the final qualifying match against Oman today should now see the UAE through to play Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“The intention was to come here and take it game by game, that is what we have been doing,” Naveed said.
“Against Oman, we will do the same thing, take it over by over, and hopefully win through to play India and those sides.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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