• Home
• /
• Local Sports

UAQ cricket eyes bright future

Slip out of the Mohammed bin Zayed highway at Exit 90 and go towards King Faisal street in UAQ; and as you enter the big roundabout, the grounds cannot be missed from a distance.

Dubai — For close to fifteen years, 14 and a half to be exact, cricket has grown from humble beginnings to the established entity it is now in Umm Al Quwain (UAQ).

Slip out of the Mohammed bin Zayed highway at Exit 90 and go towards King Faisal street in UAQ; and as you enter the big roundabout, the grounds cannot be missed from a distance.

Naser Mohammad Sultan Al Azem Ali, UAQ Cricket Association (UAQCA) president, said: “We are delighted to say we have had the support from UAQ government that has helped us grow to this level. We further want to intensify this growth with immediate plans for two turf grounds, practice pitches and an academy. It will be a proper stadium with state-of-the-art floodlights.

“We have had quite a few international cricketers participate in the UAQ tournaments. It’s been a privilege to host these stars and they love coming here as they like our tournaments.”

Keeping us posted on the development of the sport in the emirate, Mushtaq Ahmad Chowdhary, UAQ Cricket Association general secretary, said: “We began as a small unit 14 years ago with just four teams and now we have reached a time where we host 16 tournaments a year with over 800 players participating in our tournaments. We further plan to expand our operations and number of tournaments once our grounds are ready.”

Naser Mohammad added: “UAQ is hosting a record number of cricket tournaments each year and that helps in connecting the growth of the economy and tourism since we get teams from all over the emirates. We are planning to host highly rated international teams in our future tournaments which will further boost the economy and put UAQ prominently on the local and international cricket map.

The new season for 2015-16 will see a lot of additional events in the calendar. Mushtaq said: “We already have laid out our plan for 2015-16 season having announced 16 tournaments. For the first time we launched a 40-over tournament which has been well received. For next year we plan to include a two-day championship, which is the need of the hour since the short format dominates the UAE scenario.”

A family and friendly sports atmosphere is what the officials at UAQCA want to have for its members and followers of the sport.

“Other than having the new turf grounds we also want to make it a more family oriented sports destination. The players can bring along their families and we will make arrangements for them to settle and feel at home while at the ground and enjoy the match along with fun-filled activities which the spectators too can be a part.”

“The grounds are busy round the year hosting matches almost every day. We are happy to say we get teams from all over the UAE. Players don’t mind travelling the distance from Abu Dhabi or Al Ain and considering the quality tournaments we offer they always are keen to be a part of it,” Mushtaq added.

“UAQ is located ideally and our grounds are just past the expressways. While it takes less than an hour to reach from Dubai and around two and half hour from Abu Dhabi.” Among the notable development was the association’s efforts to host international players from India and Pakistan over the course of the years.

The first player to play in a tournament organised by UAQ Cricket Association was Atul Wassan, a former Indian cricketer, who represented Tiger Steel as a guest player way back in 2003.