DUBAI: Skippered by a 43-year-old and with a 15-man squad featuring nine players over 30, the United Arab Emirates believe their status as no-hopers could work in their favour at the World Cup. The last of the 14 finalists to book their place at the showpiece event, the Gulf side
By our correspondents
January 28, 2015
DUBAI: Skippered by a 43-year-old and with a 15-man squad featuring nine players over 30, the United Arab Emirates believe their status as no-hopers could work in their favour at the World Cup. The last of the 14 finalists to book their place at the showpiece event, the Gulf side are playing in just their second World Cup and first since 1996. Now, two decades on, the expat-driven squad hope to capitalise on their lowly status although the odds are stacked against them with defending champions India, 1992 winners Pakistan, two-time champions West Indies and favourites South Africa all in their group. Realistically, the best the UAE — whose players are all part-time and drawn mostly from Pakistan and India — can hope for is to try and scratch out a result against Zimbabwe and Ireland, their opponents in their first two games. Mohammed Tauqir, one of just three Emirati-born players in the squad, has been installed as captain replacing fellow 43-year-old, Pakistani Khurram Khan who had led the side for six years. Tauqir has played in 50 international matches, but just five ODIs. On his ODI debut, in the 2004 Asia Cup against India, he scored 55 off 73 balls and claimed 1-46 with his tidy right-arm off-spin. “If we put on a good show against Pakistan and India, that would be the icing on the cake,” said Tauqir, who has seen cricket develop in the Gulf state from a sport played on concrete wickets on waste ground to international arenas in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
