If cricketers the world over have felt rusty on their return after the Covid-enforced break, they are not the only ones.
Not so long ago, Dougie Brown could hit catches to his players more or less in his sleep.
When he returned to coaching this week, five months since he was let go as coach of the UAE national team, the whole process felt alien.
“I’m not going to lie, I was really rusty,” Brown said, after the first day of his new role in charge of Team Abu Dhabi in the new Emirates D10 at the ICC Academy.
“I was struggling to find my range, hitting catches to the boundary edge. The ball was going over their heads. We are all rusty.”
The whole situation must have felt odd. After all, Brown was returning to work at the place which had been his office for the best part of three years when he was in charge of the UAE team.
Now, though, his team were wearing the yellow of the Team Abu Dhabi T10 franchise, playing in a competition that had been put together at about a week’s notice.
He had not even met all of the players, having not been to the capital in the time since the border controls for Covid testing had been installed.
So knocking a side together to compete in a competition that includes the ECB Blues, which is essentially the UAE team in another guise, is going to be a tough ask.
Brown, though, is delighted to be back out doing the job he loves.
“It’s awesome, it feels absolutely fantastic,” Brown said. “It has been a long time away from it with everything that has gone on, with the Covid situation. But that has been the same for everyone.
“I’m so glad to be back out there doing what I’ve done for as long as I can remember.”
Although Team Abu Dhabi nominally represents the capital, the practicalities of the current travel situation mean they have had to call on a number of Dubai residents, including the coach himself.
They have requested to play four matches on the first two days of the tournament, in order to limit the travel – and thus the number of Covid tests that need to be undertaken by the players who are travelling between emirates.
In addition to promising Abu Dhabi-based players, they also have Dubai-based UAE batsman Rameez Shahzad in their ranks.
Their captain is the former Zimbabwe leg-spinner Graeme Cremer, who also lives in Dubai.
All the players in the competition have been told this is their chance to impress the national team selectors.
Brown, meanwhile, says it is an opportunity for promising players to prove themselves worthy of a place in the full Team Abu Dhabi side to play alongside the stars at the T10 league in the future.
“The fact they are willing to [travel between the emirates] is testament to them,” Brown said. “For me, it is really encouraging that people are willing to do that, and credit to them for it.
“They have an opportunity at the back end of this tournament if they do well."
Coincidentally, Brown’s first day back coaching put himself directly in competition with the players he had coached up until February.
ECB Blues beat Team Abu Dhabi, thanks to a blistering 81 from 27 balls by UAE opener Chirag Suri.
“It was nice to see the guys for the first time in a long time,” Brown said. “Was there more on the game for me? Not at all.
"It was just another opportunity for the Team Abu Dhabi guys to showcase their ability. If they put in a good performance, it promotes their name moving forwards from there.
“The UAE team played really well, but you’d expect that. Chirag played exceptionally well, and we never managed to claw that back.
“We want to use it as an opportunity to develop, and to get a sight on a couple of really good players who, further down the line, will be players of interest for Team Abu Dhabi in its own right.
“If we can identify players we want to develop for that franchise, we have six matches here that are really important for us and the players.”
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Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Racecard
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Brief scores:
Everton 0
Leicester City 1
Vardy 58'
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It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Scores
New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs
New Zealand win by 47 runs
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How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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6025 – Dh20
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6026 – Dh 200
Indian origin executives leading top technology firms
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
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Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 592bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Price: Dh980,000
On sale: now
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
UAE v Zimbabwe A
Results
Match 1 – UAE won by 4 wickets
Match 2 – UAE won by 5 wickets
Match 3 – UAE won by 25 runs
Match 4 – UAE won by 77 runs
Fixture
Match 5, Saturday, 9.30am start, ICC Academy, Dubai
MATCH INFO
Who: UAE v USA
What: first T20 international
When: Friday, 2pm
Where: ICC Academy in Dubai
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
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Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
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116 pitches
76 nations
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2 Kuwaiti teams
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
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Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
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