While the attention of much of the UAE sporting public is on the national football team’s bid for a place at the 2026 World Cup in Doha, on the other side of the region the cricketers are aiming to do the same.
Cosmin Olaroiu’s footballers face matches against Oman and Qatar in Doha on Saturday and Tuesday. If they top that three team group, they will qualify for next year’s World Cup in North America.
Cricket’s T20 World Cup will also be played next year, in India and Sri Lanka, and the UAE hope to be part of it.
The Lalchand Rajput-coached team are playing in a qualifying tournament on familiar territory at the Oman Cricket Academy in Al Amerat, on the outskirts of Muscat.
The T20 World Cup Asia and East Asia Pacific Qualifier carries three places for the World Cup, which is due to take place in February and March next year.
The Qualifier is slightly different to previous ones. In the recent past, the UAE had to contend with the best in Asia to reach the World Cup.
This time, they are joined by sides from the East Asia Pacific region of cricket.
Format
Nine teams are competing in the Qualifier, and are divided into three pools of three.
The top two sides from each group advance to the second round, the Super Six phase.
The top three teams at the end of that six-team, round-robin league will qualify for the World Cup.
Pools
Group 1: UAE, Malaysia, Qatar.
Group 2: Japan, Kuwait, Nepal.
Group 3: Oman, Papua New Guinea, Samoa
UAE squad
Muhammad Waseem (captain), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Jonathan Figy, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Mohammed Farooq, Mohammed Irfan, Rahul Chopra, Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Zahid Ali
Star players
Muhammad Waseem. The opener has great memories of playing in Muscat. He scored a hundred there in the Qualifier final as UAE reached the 2022 World Cup, and did the same ahead of this year’s Asia Cup.
Junaid Siddique. The fast bowler has had a brilliant few weeks. He was among the leading wicket-takers at the Asia Cup, then a few days later attracted a bid of $170,000 at the first ILT20 auction.
Mohammad Rohid. The left-arm seamer is relatively new to the national team set-up, having debuted in the summer. His capabilities were already well known, though, as shown by his $140,000 deal to play in Season 4 of the ILT20.
Fixtures
Wednesday, October 8: UAE v Qatar (2.30pm)
Friday, October 10: UAE v Malaysia (10am)
The Super Six phase will be played from October 12-17
The opposition
The UAE are the highest ranked side in the competition, and should start the tournament as one of the favourites to qualify, but there are some potential threats.
They have been used to vying with Nepal for places at major events in both men’s, women’s and age-group cricket. Some times with happy consequences, but some times with miserable ones.
Nepal are in stunning form. They flew to Muscat on the back of an extraordinary series win against the West Indies in their first series against a Test-playing nation, in Sharjah.
Oman are a new-look side and have struggled of late, but are no strangers to major events. Plus they have home advantage.
Papua New Guinea qualified for the last T20 World Cup, in the United States and the Caribbean.
Samoa are a largely unknown quantity, other than the very familiar figure of Ross Taylor. The former New Zealand captain reversed his retirement from the sport to represent the country of his heritage in the Qualifier.
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THE SPECS
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 523hp
Torque: 750Nm
Price: Dh469,000
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Stars:Robert Pattinson
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Rating: 5/5
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
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
