The Emirates Twenty20 tournament will be played between four teams on Friday, March 20 at The Sevens in Dubai. Below is your guide to one of the annual premier cricket events in the UAE.
*Match information is via organisers and subject to change
What is it?
The Emirates Twenty20 is a four-team T20 tournament played annually in Dubai featuring an Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) XI and, typically, three English County Cricket sides.
The tournament usually features some typically big-name players on the MCC team and at least a handful of notable figures from the English county scene.
Ticketing info can be found through the Emirates T20 official website.
According to the page, general entry is Dh30 and free for children 12 and under. A premium brunch package is available for Dh350, and a secondary brunch package available for Dh220 with children 12 and under eligible for a Dh60 dirham brunch package.
When is it?
Friday, March 20. Gates open at 9am, play starts at 10am and the final is scheduled for 5pm, according to organisers.
Yorkshire will play Lancashire in the opening fixture at 10am before the MCC Xi take on Sussex at 1pm.
The final is then scheduled for 5pm.
Where is it?
At The Sevens ground in Dubai. The erstwhile rugby ground shifts into a cricket ground from this event. With football matches and concerts also no strangers to The Sevens, the venue is accustomed to accommodating various transformations.
The Sevens is along the Dubai-Al Ain Road about a 20-minute drive from Bur Dubai via E66, or 30 minutes from Jebel Ali via D57 and E77.
*A map is available below for further directions
Who can be expected this year?
The MCC squad is headlined by Indian international Yuvraj Singh, along with England Test captain Alastair Cook.
England internationals Graham Onions, Michael Carberry and Nick Compton are also expected to play for the MCC.
The rest of the MCC XI consists of England Lions James Hildreth, Sam Bllings, Matt Dunn, Adam Riley and Zafar Ansari, as well as Nepal captain Paras Khadka and county players Chris Rushworth (Durham) and Daryl Mitchell (Worcestershire).
MCC’s competition will include 2014 county champions Yorkshire, led by England bowlers Tim Bresnan and Liam Plunkett and wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. Former England bowler Ryan Sidebottom could also travel with Yorkshire to the UAE.
The 2014 Emirates T20 winners Sussex will be back as well, featuring Luke Wright and former England batsman Michael Yarddy.
The field is rounded out by Lancashire, a club that includes former South Africa internationals Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince. Andrew Flintoff and Simon Kerrigan will also feature for Lancashire.
Full squads:
Lancashire: Tom Bailey, Karl Brown, Nathan Buck, Jordan Clark, Steven Croft, Alex Davies (Wicketkeeper), Paul Horton, Kyle Jarvis, Simon Kerrigan, Arron Lilley, Liam Livingstone, Stephen Parry, Luis Reece, Tom Smith (Captain)
Yorkshire: Andrew Gale (Captain), Moin Ashraf, Jonathan Bairstow, Jack Brooks, Tim Bresnan, Karl Carver, Ben Coad, Matthew Fisher, Andrew Hodd, Jack Leaning, Alex Lees, Adam Lyth, Steve Patterson, Liam Plunkett, Richard Pyrah, Adil Rashid, Will Rhodes, Ryan Sidebottom
MCC: Alastair Cook (Essex), Nick Compton (Middlesex, captain), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), James Hildreth (Somerset), Zafar Ansari (Surrey, Cambridge MCCU), Daryl Mitchell (Worcestershire), Sam Billings (Kent, Loughborough MCCU), Matthew Dunn (Surrey), Chris Rushworth (Durham), Graham Onions (Durham), Adam Riley (Kent, Loughborough MCCU), Paras Khadka* (Nepal) *TBC
Sussex: James Anyon, Will Beer, Ben Brown, Craig Cachopa, Harry Finch, Lewis Hatchett, Matt Hobden, Callum Jackson, Chris Liddle, Steve Magoffin, Tymal Mills, Chris Nash, Steffan Piolet, Ajmal Shahzad, Luke Wells, Luke Wright (Captain), Michael Yardy, Ashar Zaidi.
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Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
If you go
The flights
The closest international airport for those travelling from the UAE is Denver, Colorado. British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from the UAE via London from Dh3,700 return, including taxes. From there, transfers can be arranged to the ranch or it’s a seven-hour drive. Alternatively, take an internal flight to the counties of Cody, Casper, or Billings
The stay
Red Reflet offers a series of packages, with prices varying depending on season. All meals and activities are included, with prices starting from US$2,218 (Dh7,150) per person for a minimum stay of three nights, including taxes. For more information, visit red-reflet-ranch.net.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
The%20specs
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Pots for the Asian Qualifiers
Pot 1: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Macau/Sri Lanka
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGrowdash%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJuly%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESean%20Trevaskis%20and%20Enver%20Sorkun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERestaurant%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20Judah%20VC%2C%20TPN%20Investments%20and%20angel%20investors%2C%20including%20former%20Talabat%20chief%20executive%20Abdulhamid%20Alomar%2C%20and%20entrepreneur%20Zeid%20Husban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
