The UAE’s cricketers could be forgiven for feeling trepidation when they take the field in Dubai on Wednesday and see the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah looking back at them.
They might be coming off a tri-series against Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as having beaten Bangladesh earlier in the year.
But matches against India hit different, given the celebrity of their players and the following the side in blue have everywhere they go.
It is the first time since 2016 – the last time they played in the Asia Cup – that the UAE have played against India’s senior men’s team.
If history is a guide, it is going to be tough. The national team have lost all four times they have played India in international cricket. No shock there, given the comparative resources of the two sides.
But at least the UAE’s current vintage have a couple of things going for them. Firstly, the India side is not sprinkled with quite as much stardust as when they met back in 2004, at the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.
That India XI comprised perhaps the starriest batting line up in history: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh.
And, secondly, at least the present UAE players are all pros who can devote themselves to cricket. Back in 2004, they all had day jobs.
“I don’t think I can ever forget that day,” said Naeemuddin Aslam, who had to take time off from his new job with National Bank of Dubai to play in that Asia Cup. “It was an unreal day.”
Aslam, who is now 43, was born and raised in Dubai. In 2004, he was part of a UAE side picked to travel to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup.
That meant a fixture against the might of India, who had been defeated finalists in the World Cup a year earlier, while Aslam was still at university in Dubai studying for his degree.
Facing India, for a young player of Indian origin, was the stuff of dreams – but with a potentially nightmarish lining, too. Given the firepower in India’s line up, it could be a bloodbath.
India were fresh off their first series against Pakistan for five years, and Sehwag’s star was heading into orbit after becoming India’s first Test triple centurion.
“I’m still getting goosebumps talking about that day right now, that’s what it does to me,” Aslam said. “Obviously we were really ecstatic, excited, anxious, nervous, a bit of everything.
“We know it’s on the back of Virender Sehwag’s 300. We’re trying to keep ourselves calm, but we know that we know what he can do if he gets going.
“A couple of days before the game, we just happened to turn on the telly, a bunch of us, and we caught Sehwag’s interview on an Indian TV channel.
“The reporter is asking him, ‘Now that you’ve got 300 and you're the first Indian to get there, what is your next challenge?’.
“The guy very casually says that he’d like to get a double hundred in an ODI. We’re all looking at that interview knowing that, two days later, he’s going to come face to face with us. Is that what he means?
“So, needless to say, we’re even more nervous.”
India won the toss and elected to bat. So Sehwag had use of a nice, fresh wicket.
“That moment where Sachin and Sehwag were walking on to the field was absolutely surreal,” Aslam said.
“We watched these guys growing up. We idolised them. And, on that day, we’re level, we’re equal.”
Aslam, a chatty and amiable soul, was positioned at square leg – rather than his usual berth at cover point – meaning he had someone to talk to.
“I was standing next to Billy Doctrove, the umpire from West Indies,” Aslam said. “I was trying to tell him, ‘Look, it’s a huge moment for me, hailing from India, to be standing on the field and playing against India’.
“And he couldn’t get it. He didn’t understand how that works. In most countries, if you live in that country, you get citizenship by virtue of having spent that amount of time in that country. But in the UAE and the Gulf states, obviously it doesn’t work that way.
“When I explained it to him, he’s like, ‘Oh, so most of you guys are expats?’. He then understood most of us were expatriates, barring [off-spinner Mohammed] Tauqir.”
And, then, into action. Off the third ball of the game, Sehwag nudged a delivery from Ali Asad just behind square on the leg side, and set off for a run – only for Tendulkar to send him back.
“He catches an inside edge, it trickles down to a few yards to my right,” Aslam said. “Then short and diminutive Naeem Aslam grabs the ball and throws the stumps down. The rest is history.”
Sehwag gone for a duck. It was the dream start for Aslam and the UAE.
Even without the pyrotechnic Sehwag, India were not short of batting muscle. To limit them to 260 for six – Dravid made a century – was a mini-triumph for the UAE.
The national team were aware there was a disparity between the teams. But Syed Abid Ali, the coach, and captain Khurram Khan, counselled during the change between innings that, if they could remain calm and keep the game simple, they could make a dent in the chase.
India’s bowling, though, was too good. Irfan Pathan was the coming man of Indian swing bowling at the time. As the UAE were fired out for 144, he snaffled three victims – including Aslam for a golden duck with a trademark booming inswinger.
“Billy Doctrove raised the dreaded finger,” Aslam said. “I thought I had created enough of a rapport with him, but no, apparently not. [But] it couldn't have been more out.
“After the game, I had a call back home and I was saying, ‘Sorry, Dad, I let you all down.’ And my dad says, ‘You know, you’re not the first person to get out for a first ball duck?’.
“Gary Sobers was his hero, and he said, ‘Sobers has done it many times, and the ball that you got out literally was unplayable'.”
And after that tour, it was back to real life. The UAE did not have ODI status, as they do now. International T20 cricket was not yet a thing. So the cricketers of the national team had to wait another four years before they could add another official ODI to their records.
For Aslam, it meant going back to the office, and looking forward to recreational matches on weekends.
“We all played for the passion,” he said. "None of us had the opportunity to make it big.
“Most of the guys I played with were either from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. I was born and raised here, so I didn’t even have an opportunity to play in India. This was all the cricket I knew.
“We took our passion to the next level and tried really hard to keep our fitness. After an 8-to-10-hour day job, we used to drive from Dubai to Sharjah, get stuck in an hour and a half of traffic.
“We would then reach there at 7pm, have four hours of training, drive back home and then go back to the daily grind all over again next morning. It wasn’t easy.”
Company%C2%A0profile
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20David%20Gelb%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More on animal trafficking
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
The results of the first round are as follows:
Qais Saied (Independent): 18.4 per cent
Nabil Karoui (Qalb Tounes): 15.58 per cent
Abdelfattah Mourou (Ennahdha party): 12.88 per cent
Abdelkarim Zbidi (two-time defence minister backed by Nidaa Tounes party): 10.7 per cent
Youssef Chahed (former prime minister, leader of Long Live Tunisia): 7.3 per cent
6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
EMILY%20IN%20PARIS%3A%20SEASON%203
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START-UPS%20IN%20BATCH%204%20OF%20SANABIL%20500'S%20ACCELERATOR%20PROGRAMME
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Summer special
SERIE A FIXTURES
Friday Sassuolo v Benevento (Kick-off 11.45pm)
Saturday Crotone v Spezia (6pm), Torino v Udinese (9pm), Lazio v Verona (11.45pm)
Sunday Cagliari v Inter Milan (3.30pm), Atalanta v Fiorentina (6pm), Napoli v Sampdoria (6pm), Bologna v Roma (6pm), Genoa v Juventus (9pm), AC Milan v Parma (11.45pm)
