UAE's team proves how Indians and Pakistanis can unite for a cause

Away from the simmering tensions between the Indian and Pakistani camps at the Asia Cup following the controversial no-handshake policy from Suryakumar Yadav’s team, Indian-origin and Pakistan-origin players represented the UAE at the high-profile event, showing their impressive cricket skills and even more impressive camaraderie.

- Rituraj Borkakoty

Historically, the UAE has banked on expat communities from South Asia for its national cricket team.

A few Emiratis have gone on to play international cricket over the years, but it’s the Indian and Pakistani expat communities that have always provided the bulk of the players.

Meteoric rise

The current team, which gave Pakistan a run for their money in their final Asia Cup Group A game on Wednesday, is led by Muhammad Waseem, who hails from Mian Channu, the same town in Pakistan’s Punjab province where the country’s Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem was born.

Waseem, whose CV included only a few club-level matches in Pakistan, arrived in Dubai nine years ago to work as a sales executive. But it was an Indian expat, Mudassir Ali, who saw the cricket potential in him during a local match in Ajman.

Now the right-handed opening batsman is the fourth fastest player after Mohammad Rizwan, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam to complete 3,000 runs in T20 Internationals.

Junaid Siddique, the UAE’s pace spearhead who delivered an outstanding spell against Pakistan (4-0-18-4), was born in Multan, one of the major cities in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Simranjeet Singh, the left-arm spinner who rocked the Pakistan batting unit with three wickets, was born in India’s Punjab state where he had often bowled to Shubman Gill in the nets when the Indian star was still a teen sensation.