UAE’s chance to test youngsters ahead of cricket World Cup

The UAE begin their 2015 World Cup preparations in earnest in Malaysia on Thursday where they meet Nepal in the opening match of the six-team Asian Cricket Council Premier League.

Two of these games, against Afghanistan and Hong Kong, will hold one-day international status and the UAE coach, Aaqib Javed, said he believes it is an excellent opportunity for his players to bolster their cricket CVs.

“It is the first competition and good opportunity for the players to regroup for the first time since the ICC World Twenty20 Cup in Bangladesh in March/April,” Aaqib said.

“The opportunity to play in a tournament, particularly with two of these games holding ODI status, is a good platform as we kick off our work for the World Cup.

“An ODI game next to any player’s name is a great achievement. They are very excited to have it in their CVs. It is a record that will stay for life but of course from my side I want to see performances.

“We have less than 10 months to prepare and to some extent we can see this is the start of our preparation.

“This is also a time we can do some experiments and try to improve a few areas that we need to work on.”

Aaqib has named five debutants in the 14-member squad. They are pace bowlers Abdul Haq, Noor Al Amin and Mohammed Shahzad, leg-spinner Irfan Sajid and batting all-rounder Krishnachandran ­Karate.

“With the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand one area we are trying to improve is the fast bowling department,” said the former Pakistan World Cup winner and fast bowler.

“We have a pool of six or seven bowlers with good pace and we are trying out a few of them in this tournament.

“We have run in to this situation because two of our main spinners have been reported for a suspect ­action.”

Nasir Aziz is banned from bowling his doosra, the off-spinner’s main weapon, which has hurt his role in the team. Left-arm spinner Shadeep Silva has also had video analysis of his bowling action.

“We have to find solutions and tournaments are one way where we can test some of the talents available,” Aaqib said.

The ACC Premier League is made up of the top six Associate teams in the continent and all, except Oman and hosts Malaysia, featured in the 2014 ICC World T20 Cup.

Afghanistan have been playing in ODIs since 2009 and their captain Mohammed Nabi said: “It means we have reached the highest level of limited overs cricket, we are at the same level of the greats of the past and present and get a chance of making history ourselves.”

Hong Kong will be playing their first official ODI after having been granted temporary ODI status in Asia Cup 2004 and 2008.

“This status is huge positive and motivation,” the Hong Kong coach Charlie Burke said. “You look to these ODIs as proof of development and I just let the players know that each ball they play is going down in the record books for ever.”

The ACC event manager, Sultan Rana, said he believes all six teams are equal in strength and that all games will be competitive.

“These countries go on the field knowing to expect that all their matches against the others will be competitive, there are no real weaker or stronger teams,” he said. “It makes for better cricket, better competition and a better allocation of time and resources.”

apassela@thenational.ae

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