Afghanistan will be hoping to build on their success at the World Cup qualifiers © Getty Images

Afghanistan and China will be star attractions in the 12-nation Asian Twenty20 Cup which starts in Dubai on November 22.

Afghanistan surprised the world by finishing among the top six in the 2011 World Cup qualifying tournament to gain one-day international status earlier this year, while China will be making their debut in an Asian Twenty20 event.

The tournament serves as a qualifying round for next year's Asian Games and Mazhar Khan, administrator of Emirates Cricket Board, is hoping it will help expand cricket in Asia. "It's great to have China and Afghanistan in the event and a step forward towards promoting the game in Asia."

Sharjah and Abu Dhabi will host the matches from which the top three teams will join Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China. Twenty20 cricket became an Asian Games sport after it was approved by the Olympic Council of Asia in May, a decision that could bring Twenty20 closer to full Olympic status.

Alongside China and Afghanistan, teams from Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore, Qatar, Hong Kong, Nepal, Saudi Arab, Malaysia and Bahrain will compete in the event which runs until November 30.

Khan believes the Cup will also help Asian teams tune up for the World Twenty20 qualifiers to be held in the UAE in February next year.

"These teams will have some good preparations for the World Twenty20 qualifiers from where two teams will get a place in the third World Twenty20 Cup to be held in the West Indies next year.”

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Continue reading "Future bright beyond the Test world"

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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It might be one of the hottest, driest countries in the world but the mantra that "nothing is impossible" couldn't be more appropriate for Dubai, whose preparations to build a world class cricket centre continue at apace.

Trade Arabia, a business website, reports that "Dubai Sports City’s strategy is to provide the finest ever sports facilities and cricket is to be a cornerstone sport, guaranteed to appeal to a worldwide audience happy to take advantage of the prime location of the UAE," while adding that they will build a special laboratory to produce different types of turf.

“The operation includes developing a specialist laboratory capable of supporting this activity, to the point where we can use climate control to make the turf an exact match for the practice needs of bowlers and batsmen,” he added.

In order to create the 28 specialist turf wickets, three different national soil types were imported to Dubai. An impressive 380 tons of Australian clay, 380 tons of clay from Pakistan and 180 tons of clay from England are en route to Dubai.

Under the strict control of the UAE government laboratory, the clay types will be screened for harmful nematodes, soil-based diseases and fungi such as fusarium. Once declared free of these threats, the soil will travel through the UAE in conditions designed to keep it entirely free of contamination by sand particles.

Tariq Butt is almost single handedly keeping cricket in Dubai alive, according to an interesting report in Gulfnews.

Tariq Butt, one of the UAE's leading umpires, is a passionate organiser of tournaments. Since 1989 Butt has staged tournaments in different parts of Dubai and is keen to see that cricket continues to thrive in Dubai.

"For the last 18 years I have organised cricket festivals to mark the Indian and Pakistan Independence Day. I made sure that absence of grounds does not put to an end to this tradition," said Butt, who hails from Pakistan.

The Gulf News reports that the Dubai Sports City cricket stadium will open in January 2008 and the first international match could be as soon as March next year.

The 25,000-seater ground, which will be totally covered, features a roof that is able to withstand all weather patterns and even absorb dust storms and moisture and provide a cool atmosphere. The pitch will be suited to one-day cricket and soil and grass from different parts of the world are being experimented with.

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It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

Continue reading "A long way from home"

The Dubai Cricket Council, which hosts the maximum tournaments in the UAE, has been unable to announce their schedule for the new season.

With the seven grounds in the Al Jadaf area being taken over for the construction of the Dubai Health City three months back, the DCC is left with no grounds to stage their events.

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The DCC grounds, which housed seven cricket pitches, staged 500 matches a year until they were bulldozed last month to make way for what will eventually become Dubai Healthcare City. A replacement venue has yet to be found.

“I loved playing at the ground in Dubai, it was a little oasis out there, and it’s a crying shame that the facilities there couldn’t be saved. You just hope that somebody there might relocate them, but with the pace of development in Dubai that won’t be easy."

Gulfnews.com report that cricket in Dubai is slowly grinding to a halt, with the news that the Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) has had to vacate its premises in the Al Jadaf area after the Dubai Municipality evicted them.

"Thousands of cricket players and cricket lovers in Dubai are shocked with this cruel reality. The authorities should wake up and act in time to set up new facility before the start of next season in September," wrote one fan, outraged at the decision.