United Arab Emirates revisited.

 Posted by Tony Hutton

Watching the games from the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates this week on television has brought back memories from the past when I was a regular visitor to the region during a period when my son and family were living in Dubai. While there was little or no cricket during our Christmas visits, it was often the case that we were there in February, March or April when cricket was in full swing.

The first cricket I saw there was in April 2003 when a four nations competition for the Sharjah Cup was in progress. Sharjah by then already had something of a reputation for match fixing due to the endless series of one day matches being played there, but there didn't seem anything untoward about the games I saw there. All the games were 50 overs per side. Pakistan won an early high scoring match with Zimbabwe, whose star batsman was Dougie Marillier.

He was one of the very first batsman to play the ramp shot over his shoulder to fine leg and certainly upset Australia's Glen McGrath on one occasion. Here he got 59 against Pakistan and 100 in a win against Kenya. Somehow despite the presence of Sri Lanka, for whom Sangakarra scored a century, Zimbawe got to the final to play Pakistan again in front of a huge crowd. This time Marillier failed and Tatenda Taibu, the young wicketkeeper made top score of 74 not out. Pakistan cruised to victory on 172-2 in only 35 overs. Younis Youhana making an excellent 61 not out.

A full house at Sharjah in 2003..

The following year 2004 I was able to see ten matches in Dubai at an ICC six nations competition. The two grounds used for this competition have long disappeared under concrete due to the area's rapid expansion and building programme. This week's action has brought back memories of seeing Scotland, Namibia and the Netherlands in action in this competition, which was won in fact by the USA, fielding a team of West Indians, including Test batsman Clayton Lambert. Other participants were UAE and Canada. Main man with the bat for Scotland in those days was Yorkshire's Gavin Hamilton.

Scotland v USA 2004 - my grandson, in his pram, sees his first cricket.

In 2005 Durham visited Sharjah for a pre season warm up. Unfortunately I have no record of the scores of the game they played against UAE. All I can remember is that very few people turned up to watch and took this picture of the chickens on the terracing who almost outnumbered the spectators.

Chickens watching Durham at Sharjah.

            In March 2006 I had better memories of two very convivial games between United Arab Emirates and the visiting Lord's Taverners' XI. MCC fielded a very strong side, captained by Mike Gatting. The hospitality was excellent, perhaps enjoyed too much by the visitors who managed to lose both games. We were royally entertained by Farook Engineer at our table for lunch with tales of his times at Lancashire. When Taverners won the toss Darren Gough and Andy Caddick were delighted that they could enjoy a leisurely lunch instead of bowling in the mid-day heat.

Lord's Taverners batting in 2006 on another ground now built over in Dubai.

Lord's Taverners' XI in Dubai 2006 with some well known faces.

Early in 2008 I saw a pre-season friendly between Essex and Sussex at Sharjah and then later in the year, just before Christmas saw the Yorkshire Academy in action against Sussex Academy at the wonderful Sheik Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Where the arrival of four of us by car actually doubled the attendance. Despite being invited inside the pavilion for a right royal lunch we did manage to see some of the cricket with Joe Root and Charlie Roebuck both scoring fifties for Yorkshire.

Abu Dhabi.

The view from the pavilion at Abu Dhabi.

Then onto 2011 by which time my daughter in law was working for the ICC Academy at their headquarters in Dubai, along with Rod Marsh from Australia. Two cricket grounds here where I saw Ireland play Kenya on one and Afghanistan play Canada on the other in front of a large crowd of Afghan supporters.

Dubai Academy ground 1.

Dubai Academy ground 2, complete with Afghan supporters.

However the highlight of this visit was the recently opened Dubai International Stadium, which we had previously seen when a building site. Here we saw Netherlands playing Zimbabwe again in front of only a handful of supporters, very different from yesterday's full house for Pakistan v India. This picture is not one of mine but taken by someone from the ICC soon after it's opening.

Dubai International Stadium.

Netherlands v Zimbabwe inside the Stadium with not a spectator in sight.