Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) Selection Committee have officially announced the list of 20 men’s players, that have been awarded Emirates Cricket Central Contracts for the period of next 12 months. 10 players have been awarded full-time contracts, while the other 10 players have been retained on part-time contracts.
“The selection committee is delighted with the number of young and enthusiastic players we identified for this group. “Every one of them bring a broad range of complementing skills required to strongly represent the UAE at both the associate and international stages,” said Dr Tayeb Kamali, Selection Committee Chairman on Emirates Cricket website.
“As we eagerly wait for ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 pathway to recommence, opportunities such as the Emirates D10 and Emirates D20 tournaments will help prepare this group into a cohesive and a high-performing team,” added Kamali.
The list of players awarded part-time contracts include names who have impressed during the currently underway Emirates D20 tournament. However, the surprise omission from the list is the 33-year-old Rameez Shahzad, who is among the highest run-scorers in the D20 tournament so far, and boasts a 50+ ODI average for UAE in International matches.
Vriitya Aravind and Jonathan Figy, who represented UAE in the 2020 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa are also notable absentees from the list, but it is mostly due to the fact that they both are studying full-time in the UK, with Loughborough University (Vriitya) and Leeds University (Figy).
Centrally contracted players
Full time: Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammad Usman, Chirag Suri, Muhammad Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad and Zawar Farid
Part Time: Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Ali Shan Sharafu, CP Rizwan, Basil Hamid, Matti Ullah, Fahad Nawaz and Sanchit Sharma
UAE will be hosting Ireland for a series of four ODI matches on January 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th at Sheikh Zayed International Stadium in Abu Dhabi. UAE also have a packed schedule in CWC League 2 during the last quarter of 2021, with overseas tours to USA and Namibia and playing host’s in December 2020.
