Tanish, Naseer, Tanveer in Desert Vipers team for ILT20 Development Tournament
A draft was held on August 18 at the Dubai International Stadium and attended by representatives of all six teams involved.
Jack Luffman, the Desert Vipers Development Lead, headed the Vipers contingent at the draft, where a selection of fifteen was made from a pool of 350 UAE players.
Luffman, who has been heavily involved in scouting local talent in his role as Development Lead for the Desert Vipers, said he was especially proud of how far fast bowler Khuzaima Bin Tanveer has come along since being discovered by the Vipers at the Development Tournament last year.
'We have managed to retain Khuzaima for the Development Tournament and what is great is that he has already been retained by the first team for season four,' said Luffman.
'While he has not quite qualified yet for the UAE (based on residency rules), I am pretty confident that once that qualification is reached, he will be straight in. I think he is the best pace bowler in the country by a fair margin.'
Speaking about some of the other players to look out for at this year's Development Tournament, he added: 'We are delighted that we managed to secure Nilansh Keswani, a young left-arm spinner, who again has been in and around the UAE side, but has had a very good domestic D50 tournament in recent times.
'Other players to look out for are Nabeel Aziz, another young spinner, Sanjay Pahal, an all-rounder, and batter Mayank Mayank, who we are delighted to have with us. He scored a lot of runs in this Development Tournament last year so hopefully he can do the same for us this year.
'The players can all put themselves in the shop window and see where that leads, whether that is with us as the Vipers or with another franchise.
'I think that is the great thing about this (Development) tournament: yes, I am looking at a list of fifteen players here that will be our priority during this next ten to fourteen days but we will obviously keep an eye on everything else that is going on and relay that back to our senior coaching team. So I think that is the advantage of a short, intense, local tournament.'
Fifteen of the leading players from the UAE will not be involved in the tournament because of a T20I tri-series between UAE, Afghanistan and Pakistan that takes place in August and September but Luffman believes this will not impact the quality of the Development Tournament.
'Some might say the quality will be reduced but I just think that makes it even more competitive,' he said. 'That is because there are a lot more players who probably have not had the opportunity to play at this level previously. I think that players will be really up for it. They will be well prepared and really determined to do well.
'And that, of course, just brings the level of those games up a bit more with the competitiveness, the will to win, the will to get one over on your mates.
'I am really looking forward to it. I think the quality will be high. I think the desire is there for all people to see these young and up and coming cricketers as they try and make it to the big stage. And what a great way to try and do it at the ICC Academy. I think there will be lots of runs scored as there usually are there because it is quite small.
'I am pretty sure there will be some exciting cricket to watch and hopefully the Vipers will be at the forefront of that.'
Vipers Development squad: Tanish Suri (wicketkeeper), Daniel Pawson (wicketkeeper), Mayank Mayank (batter), Usman Pandit (batter): Basil Hameed (batter): Arron Lilley (batter), Ali Naseer (all-rounder), Sanjay Pahal (all-rounder), Taimoor Ali (all-rounder), Nilansh Keswani (left-arm spin), Nabeel Aziz (left-arm spin), Angad Nehru (right-arm spin), Khuzaima Bin Tanveer (fast bowler), Awais Ahmed (fast bowler), Hafiz Almas Ayub (fast bowler).
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