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  By K.R. Nayar Following Emirates Cricket Board’s hugely successful D10 tournament, the board will now stage the inaugural D20 tournament from December 6 with an eye to provide more talented players for the UAE's Director of Cricket, Robin Singh, who can groom them into national team players Mubashshir Usmani, flanked by Robin Singh (R) and Vivek Chandra announce the event Dream 11, title sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 that was successfully held in the UAE, will be the title sponsors of the Emirates Cricket Board’s (ECB) domestic tournament commencing on December 6. This event will be powered by the sports portal SKY247.net. With the aim of supporting Robin Singh, UAE’s Director of Cricket and renowned coach, to spot talented cricketers, the Emirates Cricket Board will be staging this tournament, which will be known as 'Dream 11 Emirates D20 Tournament' in partnership with ITW Consulting. The ECB and ITW together had staged a domestic ‘D10’ before the st...

By K.R. Nayar What you permit to enter your mind decides your happiness. Here are a few ways through which we can bring happiness into our minds. These are things which we know can give us happiness but we tend to ignore them. With slight modifications and conscious thinking, we can travel a long way happy. I write on sports almost all the time, and the one thing that stands out among successful sportsmen is their ability to keep themselves happy every day, feel good, and look ahead with positivity. I have tried to analyse this deeply and realised that happiness depends on what you allow to enter your mind. We also need to ensure that we take care of our physical self by remaining fit to feel happy. Only a healthy body can support a person to chase his or her dreams, or even admire and enjoy whatever we see and do every day. So the first thing we need to decide at the start of the day is to focus on ourselves. While it may be yoga for some, it could be a brisk walk or a jog or swim f...

  By K.R. Nayar Being a cricket writer, I did not get the opportunity to trail Maradona even while he was in Dubai for a while. But my first meeting with him here was unique....much unlike my meetings with other sporting legends. My conclusion at the end of that meeting was that 'if only this genius had controlled his temperament just like he had controlled the ball.....' Diego Maradona poses with Kerala Under-12 boys at the Al Wasl Club Diego Maradona had worked in Dubai as the coach of two football clubs and was also the 'Sporting Ambassador' of the Dubai Sports Council.  It was a great feeling to have this greatest football legend living here and serve in different roles from 2011. Many of my soccer-crazy friends living outside of the UAE, who are big Maradona fans, were envious of the fact that I was working as a sports journalist in a city where this legend lived. Given that I was reporting on cricket and soccer was not my beat, there was no opportunity for me t...

By K.R. Nayar   Seventeen-year-old Sharafu, who broke his own record in the Emirates Cricket Board League Under-19 event aims to cement his place in the UAE senior team and also eyes to play alongside international cricketers in the Abu Dhabi T10 League Ali Shan Sharafu Ali Shan Sharafu was at the launch of the Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League last Wednesday night. This 17-year-old, who is one of the most promising UAE cricketers, came for the launch after breaking his own record in the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB)  League Under-19 tournament. In 2019, Sharafu had hit 151 runs to set a new mark in this league. In this season, he bettered it by hitting 155 against Maxtalent Academy. His knock contained 13 sixes, and his ton came off 59 balls to shatter his own record. In the Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League, he will be playing for Pacific Goltay that is made up of budding cricketers, and he will be aiming to put up a good show to be picked for the oncoming Abu Dhabi T10 league. Sh...

By K.R. Nayar Joe Darling was the darling of the players in his squad. Very few may know that this former Australian captain was the first left-hander to hit a Test century, the first batsman to crack a six, and the first to score 500 runs in a Test series. He was a darling to his wife, and together they had 15 children. The dictionary meaning of ‘Darling’ is ‘a person who is a very much loved or liked’. In cricket, there was one such person who achieved many landmarks being the darling of the players in his team. He was born on November 21, 1870, and his name popped up on my screen while screening for some cricket details that I was looking for.   The man whom everyone addressed as Darling was Australian captain Joe Darling, who captained them to victory over arch rivals England in 1899 and 1902.  He is the pride of all left-handed batsmen since he was the first left-hander to crack a century in Test cricket when he scored 101 against England in the first Test at Sydney i...

By K.R. Nayar The T10 format, which originated from the UAE, has now spread to other parts of the world with the Mauritius Cric10 League set to begin from December 2. This league will see the likes of Sri Lanka’s Dilharo Fernando, India’s Pravin Kumar, and Pragyan Ojha, as well as West Indies’ Kennar Lewis, Ryan Emrit and Kevon Cooper taking part. The T10 format, which has its origins in the UAE, is now spreading to different parts of the world. It is understood that very soon Test-playing nations like Sri Lanka and the West Indies too will be staging tournaments in the T10 format. Interestingly, even countries where cricket is just gaining popularity are planning to stage T10 tournaments. The Mauritius Cric10 League, which will be held from December 2nd to 19th, will feature cricketers from South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada, hosts Mauritius and the UAE, and this is expected to attract a lot of attention internationally. Emerging players from t...

By K.R. Nayar Ten teams to compete from November 30 to December 4 at Eden Gardens Ajman. Top performers from this league will be referred to the Players Management Council of the Abu Dhabi T10’s fourth edition to held from January 28 to February 6, 2021 Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League trophy launch  Close on heels to the resounding success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE, a unique domestic cricket tournament – the Ajman T10 Talent Hunt League, with a vision to spot talent, will commence from November 30 at the Eden Garden Ajman Ground. This tournament is aimed at unearthing talented cricketers for an opportunity to be included in the franchise teams for the Abu Dhabi T10 scheduled from January 28 to February 6, 2021. The trophy was unveiled aboard a cruise boat ' on the night of Wednesday, November 18, 2020, in the presence of all the participating team representatives and budding cricketers with motivating messages from International cricketers and renowned coach...

By K.R. Nayar  IPL 2021, which is likely to be held in April in the UAE, may see spectators being allowed at 30 percent of capacity UAE has become the safest and most preferred destination to host sporting events and training camps following the safe and successful conduct of the Indian Premier League 2020 that lasted close to two months. This has caught world attention, especially in being able to keep the top eight teams comprising the world’s best cricketers safe. They played a total of 56 matches in the UAE from September 18 to November 10 at the Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi venues. The impact of this has been immediate with the world’s top athletes now feeling safe to fly here. Their preparations for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which will be held in the summer of next year following the postponement of the event due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held here now.  With coronavirus spreading fast in European countries, many athletes from these countries are likely to be...

 By K.R. Nayar  Indian and Australian cricketers who were part of IPL2020 have flown out from the UAE- a country that have staged the most number of One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals in the world today -  to the Sydney cricket ground that also has many landmarks to its credit.  As much as we recall the feats of cricketers, landmarks achieved by cricket grounds also deserve to be highlighted  Sydney Cricket ground  UAE should feel proud when India take on Australia in the first One Day International match of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on November 27, 2020. One may wonder why that should be the case?  The UAE can also be proud of the fact that these cricketers have moved from one historic cricket centre, which has played an important role in two formats of the game, to another country that is steeped in cricket history and has played a historic role in all formats of the game.   Through numerous exciting matches,...

By K.R. Nayar   Can any of the seven teams stop Mumbai Indians from a hat-trick of IPL triumphs in the next edition? A ‘Hit Man’ and a ‘Thunder Bolt’ thwarted the possibility of the Indian Premier League in UAE producing a new champion. Mumbai Indians skipper and Indian cricket’s Hit Man Rohit Sharma and his pacer Trent Boult, known also as Thunder Bolt, squashed Delhi Capitals' hopes of winning the IPL title in the final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Through their five-wicket win, Mumbai has emphatically announced that they are unstoppable and now deserve the tag of the best T20 team in the world today. Inflicting a fourth consecutive defeat on Delhi, Mumbai proved that they were far ahead to be stopped. Mumbai Indians now resemble the Australian team that dominated world cricket till a few years ago. When Mumbai received the Fair Play award too, it exemplified the spirit with which they play the game. Delhi had come into the final like the representati...

By K.R. Nayar Remarks on the need to be responsible and have better attitude on the field, be it super stars or regular players, come to the fore Every Indian Premier League ends with teams learning a new lesson. They carry these lessons into the next IPL to strengthen their teams. This could be one reason that this IPL was keenly contested with hardly any difference between the teams. Any team, even the squad that finished last, was capable of beating another team on their day. The plan will be to ensure to make it their day in all matches in the next edition. It is here that captains will play a significant role. They should lead from the front through an inspiring performance. A study on what the losing captains felt about their defeats is worth examining. Let’s begin with Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith, whose team finished last after a promising start. “We were inconsistent in the middle and didn't take enough responsibility,” was his remark after their last match d...

By K.R. Nayar   Marcus Stoinis' approach personified Delhi’s strategy to dominate Hyderabad from the start Delhi Capitals’ triumph over a confident Sunrisers Hyderabad is a tale of a team that decided to brave the challenge by strengthening their minds to wipe away all their dark moments in this tournament. They were talked about as the best when the tournament began, and they did prove that until mid-way through the tournament. Then a series of defeats pushed them back completely. But in this match, they lived in the present and played with the belief that they are still the best. Delhi’s gutsy actions began right from the toss. They bravely elected to bat, knowing well that teams who have batted second have won eight out of the nine games at the at the Abu Dhabi Zayed Cricket Stadium.  It was a strategy to avoid the pressures of chasing a target. They sent out their hard-hitter and in-form Marcus Stoinis to open with Shikhar Dhawan. Stoinis walked in with his chest spr...