Lack of job security in the way of UAE cricket’s progress

The Emirates Cricket Board is working on a formula to professionalise some of the elite game, but David East, the chief executive, acknowledges it is not an easy process.

Having lost all three matches at their World Twenty20 debut in Bangladesh last week, it is clear much needs to be done to prove the UAE are a credible force at the top level.

The simple answer is to employ the leading national team players as paid professionals.

However, the lack of job security for players who are exclusively expatriate makes a move towards professionalism a precarious one.

“In an ideal world you would have centrally contracted players and they would be fully professional, but obviously that has its challenges here in the UAE in terms of job security,” East said.

“We are looking to try to find a way forward. We want to find a formula that will provide us with greater access to the players but make sure they are not compromised in terms of them staying in the UAE.”

The UAE senior team will play on the global stage twice over the space of 12 months after two successful qualifying campaigns in recent months, which suggests a game in good health.

East says the sport here owes a debt to cricket-loving employers who are sympathetic to the needs of the country’s leading players.

“The national team players all effectively play for corporate teams,” East said.

“We have received excellent support from those companies in terms of releasing the players for practice and tournaments. They are very supportive of it.

“That has been a big part of it, the fact these cricket-loving employers let us have these players for the period of time that we need them.”

Vikrant Shetty, the UAE batsman, says the gap to the leading teams will be difficult to bridge so long as the players have to focus on duties other than cricket.

“In the future it will have to go that way for us to be more professional, where we actually have full-time jobs which are involved with cricket,” Shetty said. “Right now I don’t think that is the top priority of the cricket board, but hopefully soon it happens as it does make a difference.

“Now we are working the whole day, thinking about work and carrying the work pressures into our cricket. It does make a difference.”

However, Shetty insisted the under-par fielding effort, in particular the five dropped catches on the opening night against the Netherlands, was more down to the pressure of the big event than an underlying failing of the system.

He said the side “didn’t field as badly in practice as we did when we were on TV,” and that they only had themselves to blame.

“I don’t think we can take it forward and keep using it as an excuse,” Shetty said. “Things don’t change overnight for us. In our minds we don’t think that we are amateur cricketers, we think we are professional cricketers and we play the game on that basis.

“We do make time in the evenings and at weekends and that is enough for us to field decently well. It doesn’t give us an excuse to drop a catch.”

Rohan Mustafa, the vice-captain, believes domestic cricket is already moving in the right direction.

“UAE cricket is becoming very professional as a lot of the teams have been recruiting Pakistani international players,” Mustafa said. “We can learn from them and we are improving day by day. The more we are in contact with players like that the more our cricket will improve.”

pradley@thenational.ae

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