ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

reorganised in 2006 and the number of countries reduced this was not sufficient to allow their continued participation. However, in the following years their one-day squad maintained Uganda’s position as one of the top twelve Associate/Affiliate countries and their tenth position in the ICC World Cup Qualifying in 2009 gave them a place in the Intercontinental Shield. Again, with a mixture of youth and experience, they impressed with their positive attitude towards the game. In addition to Nsubuga, Lawrence Sematimba, Roger Mukasa and Denis Arinaitwe demonstrated their ability at first-class level. They failed to meet the qualifying standard for the 2011-13 competition introduced after the Intercontinental Shield was abandoned. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Played Won Drawn Lost Won on first inns Lost on first inns No result Cup 16 3 1 3 1 8 Shield 4 2 0 1 0 1 Highest team total 449 v Bermuda Abu Dhabi 2007 Lowest team total 76 v Nepal Kirtipur 2005 Highest individual total 195 Saqib Ali v Ireland Abu Dhabi 2008 Best bowling analysis 9-74 Ali Asad v Nepal Sharjah 2004 Best wicketkeeping 4 c Mohammad Taskeen v Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 2004 4 c Mohammad Taskeen v Canada Sharjah 2004 4 c 1 st S.P.Patil v Namibia Dubai 2010 Performances in italics are for the Intercontinental Shield. The United Arab Emirates began well, winning the Asia Group in the first year of the competition before losing to Canada in the semi-final. The following year they struggled to win the Asia Group, finishing only 0.5 points ahead of Nepal and, since then, their performance has been disappointing. The team has been very unsettled, the selectors using 48 players in 16 matches. Of these, only 38% were born in the Emirates and almost all of these are of Pakistani, Indian or Sri Lankan descent. Of those born in the Indian sub-continent, 13 had previous experience of first-class or List A cricket in their own countries before qualifying to play for the Emirates. Surprisingly this experience did not translated into results. The majority of this group of players have somewhat mediocre records. If these players were hoping to use the Emirates to develop a career in international cricket, they have generally not succeeded. Nevertheless, the Emirates have produced three outstanding players, all all-rounders with batting stronger than their bowling. These are Arshad Ali, Khurram Khan and Saqib Ali. They are the only players to have scored over 500 runs for the Emirates in the Intercontinental Cup. Arshad Ali and Saqib Ali have strike rates in the low 50s and Khurram Khan one in the low 60s. Unfortunately, the rest of the batting has been poor to inconsistent, particularly in away matches. The bowling has been no better with no one having a strike rate below 30. The most successful has been Ali Asad with a strike rate of 39.63 but this owes much to one outstanding performance, his nine for 74 against Nepal in 2004. Overall, the pace bowling has been ordinary and the attack too reliant on the spin bowling of the three all-rounders named above; this, however, has been economical rather than penetrative. When the Intercontinental Cup started, the United Arab Emirates were the top Associate side in Asia, a position they assumed after Bangladesh were granted test status. They have now been overtaken by Afghanistan and in 2009 fell to the second rung of Associates when they failed to qualify for the 2009-10 competition and were demoted to the Intercontinental Shield. They reached the final of the Shield only to lose to Namibia in Dubai thanks to a disastrous display of batting on the first day. They will play in the Intercontinental Cup in 2011-13. 279 Countries