ILT20 Season 3 was a step back for UAE players as their battle for recognition goes on

The National

11-02-2025

Many of us have been guilty at some stage or other of thinking the history of UAE started when we arrived. 'I think you have seen [improvement] with the local players over the past three years,' Sam Billings said on Sunday night. 'Mohammed Waseem is a quality player. We know that. Now you have probably 10 local players who can put their hand up as being genuine quality. We didn't have that three years ago.' Given he was sat next to the DP World International League T20 trophy having just led Dubai Capitals to the title in a thrilling final, it is difficult to argue. Having played in all three finals of the UAE's T20 franchise competition to date, Billings was speaking from a position of both power and wisdom. But UAE cricket did not start with the advent of ILT20, just like Indian cricket did not start when the Indian Premier League began. The league is not to thank for creating players when their opportunities in a tournament that is here for one month of the year remain so limited. Ashis Nandy, in the Tao of Cricket, described the sport as being an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English. To mangle the sentiment, the ILT20 is an Indian league peopled by Englishmen, that just happens to be staged in the UAE. Matches are scheduled with Indian prime time TV in mind. Fair enough, too, given the revenue that has generated powers the league. The organisers say it is the second most watched in the world, after the IPL, based largely on the ratings it gets on the Zee TV back in India. One of the Zee TV execs said before Season 3 that 'if India is watching, then the world is watching'. The opening ceremony included performances by Bollywood stars. All the Bollywood glam is great, and it is deeply entwined with the heritage of UAE cricket. Stars of the Indian film and entertainment industries have been coming to matches here since the start of the Sharjah Cup in the 1980s, which was itself a forebear for the IPL in many ways. But that was more than 40 years ago now. UAE cricket has long since been able to stand on its own two feet, so why is it being treated as an emerging programme by its own competition? The UAE national team played at the T20 World Cup the year before the ILT20 first launched. They were good enough that 11 players were able to share a field against the world's best. But in their own league they are now hidden behind journeymen from abroad. English players bowled nearly twice as many overs as UAE ones in this tournament, and had nearly six times as long at the batting crease. We are not talking about Joe Root, Jos Buttler or Jofra Archer here. Players who would bring paying customers through the gates, and eyeballs to TV screens. Instead, that included the likes of Adam Rossington and Tom Alsop, admirable county pros who could wander around Dubai Mall entirely unrecognised. Both of those players had fine moments in the ILT20. But should they be getting chances ahead of local prospects? English players are getting more out of this competition than UAE ones, and that does not seem right. Take the case of Jordan Cox. The highly rated young wicketkeeper-batter has played 21 ILT20 matches over the past two seasons. He has maintained his place near the top of Gulf Giants' middle order, despite the middling return of 401 runs at 20, with a strike rate of 113. Good for him. Cox might end up being a very fine player for England. Brendon McCullum, for one, reportedly thinks he is going to be. Now he is two years of ILT20 cricket better off, both financially and in terms of experience. He has been allowed to fail for that time in order to get better. That is great for him, but why are UAE players not indulged in the same way? If a UAE player had returns like Cox's, they would have lasted four games, max, or been shuffled down the batting line up in no short order, maybe to play instead as a specialist fielder. Like Ethan D'Souza. The Abu Dhabi-raised teenager played seven games for Sharjah Warriorz, and did not bat in three of them. On debut, he batted at No 9, below bowlers like Keemo Paul and Tim Southee. He is 'learning just by being there', though, presumably. The fact D'Souza is an incredible fielder meant he was deemed to be worth more to Sharjah than either of their two spare UAE players, the bowlers Mohammad Jawadullah and Junaid Siddique. Further to that, the same franchise flew in Moeen Ali from South Africa for their last-chance play-off against Desert Vipers. A household name of great pedigree, no doubt. But his arrival meant Rohan Mustafa and D'Souza were shunted a place down the batting order, and Mustafa's bowling was not called on until it was apparent that Moeen's off-spin was suffering from some sort of jet lag. Alishan Sharafu was the second highest run-getter for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, even though he was undermined in the first game by being retired out by his team when within a shot of making 50. At least it became clear it wasn't a conspiracy against UAE players, per se. It later happened to Roston Chase and Joe Clarke, too. But it was all a little unseemly and embarrassing. The tactic did not exactly work too well in the long run, either. The Knight Riders were too clever for their own good, and flounced out of the tournament before the play-offs. At Desert Vipers, who came so close to winning the title, there was the case of Ali Naseer. The 20-year-old all-rounder is one of the brightest prospects anywhere in the game, not just in the UAE. Yet the ILT20 was a waste of time for him. He neither batted nor bowled in four or the seven matches he played. He bowled one over in the month, and batted at No 9 twice. In every game, his prospects were diminished the odious super sub rule, where a player can be replaced when their game is basically finished. The rule is a complete nonsense, borrowed from the IPL, and it is clear it is failing the UAE players. Having an additional batter or bowler almost always limits the chance for the local player to have a meaningful impact on the game. Six of the 15 most economical bowlers in Season 3 were from the UAE. That is despite the fact they were often under used. Aayan Khan took 10 wickets. His combined bowling average and strike rate was superior to any other bowler in the competition. And yet only twice in 10 games was he given his full quota of four overs, and in three he was not even bowled at all. One of the tournaments with which the ILT20 clashed was Australia's Big Bash League. Mitchell Owen came from nowhere to make a star of himself with a hundred in the final of that event. He even got an SA20 deal to replace Joe Root in the process. There is nothing better than seeing a local lad make good like that, but the chances for that to happen in the ILT20 are severely restricted. Maybe the UAE players aren't that good. Or maybe they are. Who knows, if they so rarely get a proper chance?