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Captain Khan: UAE can fulfill World Twenty20 dream
Captain Khurram Khan is optimistic about UAE’s chances of qualifying for the International Cricket Council World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014.
UAE will be among the 16 teams battling for six spots during the World Twenty20 Qualifiers that gets under way at six venues in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi from November 15.
The six qualifiers will join hosts Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the first round of the World Twenty20. Two teams will then make the cut for the Super10 featuring top-ranked eight teams including defending champions West Indies.
UAE are placed in Group A alongside favourites Ireland. They will also be joined by Namibia, Canada, Uganda, USA, Italy and Hong Kong.
Khan said: “It would be a dream come true to qualify for the World Twenty20 next year. All the hard work that we have put in would have paid off and with people’s perception of cricket in the UAE forever changing it would really be the icing on the cake.”
UAE did not compete in the last World T20 qualifiers held in March 2012, but has enjoyed a busy season preparing for this year’s event.
They finished third at the Asian Cricket Council Twenty20 Cup in April, beating fellow Group A team Hong Kong by 32 runs in the play-offs, before finishing third in the World Cricket League Championship and fourth in the Intercontinental Cup, both of which finished in October.
“We’ve been playing non-stop since we finished our tour of Canada for the WCL Championship. We’ve already started regular sessions in the last four or five months to help us prepare for this tournament,” Khan said.
“We’ve played against all the teams in our group and they know our strengths and that means I think it will be a close contest. The shortest format of the game is probably the most unpredictable and that means you can’t write off any team, we simply have to play our best cricket,” he added.
However, Khurram believes playing at home may not be exactly beneficial.
“Home conditions may not be a big advantage for us as most of the teams, if not all of them, have played here before and know the conditions the UAE has to offer.
“Our players will need to be in top form and that will make the difference for us during the event. Our top order batsmen, Shaiman Anwar, Saqib Ali and Swapnil Patil are in great form; combine that with the all-rounders of Nasir Aziz, Muhammad Azam and Rohan Mustafa and we stand in good stead for the tournament.
“I think everyone in the UAE should be coming out to support us in the event. All the matches are free to attend and we are one of the few sides in the top eight that doesn’t play cricket on a full-time basis and yet we’re consistently performing against the top teams.”
UAE kick off their campaign against Uganda on November 15 at Abu Dhabi Oval 1.
The squad: Khurram Khan (captain), Saqib Ali, Shaiman Anwar, Muhammad Azam, Nasir Aziz, Manjula Ansanka Guruge, Amjad Javed, Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Naveed, Swapnil Patil, Ahmed Raza, Abdul Shakoor, Kamran Shahzad, Shadeep Silva, Muhammad Shafiq.
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