Afzal Khan breathes a sigh of fulfilment when reflecting on his son’s selection for the UAE’s T20 World Cup squad, and says, without a hint of irony: “It has been a long journey.”
Outsiders might scoff at the very idea. The World Cup, which starts on Sunday in Australia, with UAE facing Netherlands on the opening evening, will be over before Aayan Afzal Khan even turns 17. He will be keeping up with his distance learning online school courses while he is at the event.
He debuted for the senior national team against Bangladesh at Dubai International Stadium earlier this month aged 16 years and 314 days.
To suggest he has had a long paper round seems fanciful. If anything, he is so young he should still be doing a paper round. So how long can his journey really have been?
And yet his father knows better than anyone the hours that have been invested in getting him to this point.
To the point where, if he makes the starting line up in Geelong, Aayan will become the youngest player to feature in a men’s T20 World Cup – breaking the record of Pakistan’s Mohammed Amir.
Aayan%E2%80%99s%20records
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And to the point where, if he is faced with any of the world’s fastest bowlers or fiercest batters in Australia, his father will have no concerns whatsoever.
“I bowl at him myself with the sidearm [bowling aid] at 130-140kph, and at the age of seven or eight we removed the fear,” Afzal said.
“Even at that age he was practicing with the big boys, the Under 19s. They would put pace and bounce on the ball and he was already judging it properly.
“I was never scared. The fear was removed from him. I asked him if he wanted an arm-guard or chest guard, and he said, ‘No, I don’t want these things.’
“He always says, ‘Don’t worry about me,’ and that gives me confidence. He is tough. When he gets injured, he doesn’t show it.”
The fresh-faced teen could pass for being far younger than 16. He has been playing against the leading players in the country at senior level since he was 14, and impressed as soon as he started out in men’s senior cricket.
Still, it was a shock when he was named in the squad for the UAE’s trip to the Australia this month, in what will be their second appearance at a T20 World Cup.
He only debuted after that announcement, in a hastily assembled T20 international series against Bangladesh. Immediately, though, he looked the part in celebrated company.
“My dream for him when he started cricket at the age of five was for him to play international cricket,” father Afzal said.
“He has worked hard, and also myself and my wife [Shahista] have worked hard with him to get him to the national team.
“His journey was a long one. He has played a lot of domestic cricket – A-Division, B-Division, C-Division – and most nights we would come home late, at 3am, from watching his matches and working on correcting his mistakes.”
“But I didn’t ever think he’d be playing internationally at the age of 16. I was really surprised when he got the call to say he had been selected for the UAE men’s team. It has been hard work for us, so it is great to see it has paid off for him like this.”
Afzal himself was at the office in Sharjah, where he works as a credit controller, when his son received the call to tell him he was off to the World Cup.
He hopes to make the trip to Australia himself, but has yet to book flights. He and his wife already have one cherished memory, though.
“We were really happy to see him make his debut in front of us against Bangladesh,” Afzal said.
“Our dream came true. His mum and dad saw him given his cap and give a good performance against the Bangladesh team.
“It was really emotional. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. He is still just 16. It was great for us.
“All my family and friends, and all the Goans, are very, very happy.”
Aayan was born in Goa, where his father had been a cricketer of distinction, before the family moved to the UAE when he was two. He started showing an interest in the sport soon after.
“When he was around four years old he was watching matches on TV, and he was using his spoon as a bat,” Afzal said.
“He was watching Sachin Tendulkar. It was obvious he liked it, so I thought why not work with him. The talent was there, so we started at that age, with a plastic bat.”
He enrolled Aayan in Desert Cubs, the prolific cricket academy that has set a variety of future UAE players on the path to international cricket.
It was there that his father hatched an unconventional plan with the head coach. Aayan has made his name so far in cricket as a left-arm spinner – even though that is unnatural to him. He writes, and even throws, right-handed.
“He’s naturally right-handed, but I made him left-handed,” Afzal said.
“I wanted to make him a pace bowler, like [former India seamer] Irfan Pathan. Then a coach from Desert Cubs said we should make him a spinner. They showed him the grip, and there is good scope when you are a left-arm spinner.
“He was watching [India spin-bowler] Ravindra Jadeja’s videos. It has worked out for us.”
All of UAE cricket are hopeful it works out in the long term, too. CP Rizwan, the national team captain, has been a teammate of Aayan’s at club level with Bukhatir XI in Sharjah, and has been impressed with what he has seen.
“There is no doubt about his potential, it was just a matter of whether he could execute at that bigger stage, which he did against Bangladesh [scoring 25 off 17 balls and taking 1-16],” Rizwan said.
“I am very hopeful about his future. I am sure he can do wonders for UAE cricket going forward.”
Aayan is enrolled at the Sharjah Cricket Academy. His peers will be willing him to success when they tune in for the UAE’s World Cup fixtures, starting when they face the Netherlands in Geelong on Sunday, October 16. And they will not be the only ones.
“Aayan’s big-stage potential was on display for us to see right from day one,” said Khalaf Bukhatir, the chief executive of Sharjah Cricket.
“He’s been a consistent youngster at our academy, and we’re proud to have believed in him.
“I adore his confidence and I’m sure he has a long way to go. Congratulations to him for making it to the UAE men’s senior team - and that, too, for a prestigious event like a World Cup.
“I wish him all the very best. Our doors are always open for him.”
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
THE NEW BATCH'S FOCUS SECTORS
AiFlux – renewables, oil and gas
DevisionX – manufacturing
Event Gates – security and manufacturing
Farmdar – agriculture
Farmin – smart cities
Greener Crop – agriculture
Ipera.ai – space digitisation
Lune Technologies – fibre-optics
Monak – delivery
NutzenTech – environment
Nybl – machine learning
Occicor – shelf management
Olymon Solutions – smart automation
Pivony – user-generated data
PowerDev – energy big data
Sav – finance
Searover – renewables
Swftbox – delivery
Trade Capital Partners – FinTech
Valorafutbol – sports and entertainment
Workfam – employee engagement
The%20Killer
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EDavid%20Fincher%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMichael%20Fassbender%2C%20Tilda%20Swinton%2C%20Charles%20Parnell%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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.”
The specs: 2018 Jaguar F-Type Convertible
Price, base / as tested: Dh283,080 / Dh318,465
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 295hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.2L / 100km
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More on Quran memorisation:
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: seven-speed PDK dual clutch automatic
Power: 375bhp
Torque: 520Nm
Price: Dh332,800
On sale: now
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
MATCH INFO
Karnatake Tuskers 114-1 (10 ovs)
Charles 57, Amla 47
Bangla Tigers 117-5 (8.5 ovs)
Fletcher 40, Moores 28 no, Lamichhane 2-9
Bangla Tiger win by five wickets
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Aayan%E2%80%99s%20records
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