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  By K.R. Nayar Academies Premier League, which is set to commence from the first week of March, will give budding cricketers from all the leading academies in the UAE to play at the historic Sharjah Cricket Stadium wicket on which great legends have produced top performances.  Twenty-eight teams in all will contest in the Under-16 and Under-19 categories Waleed Bukhatir, vice chairman Sharjah Cricket Stadium addresses the gathering during the draw   Starting March first week, budding cricketers training at the various cricket academies in the UAE will be playing in a high-profile tournament at the historic Sharjah Cricket Stadium.  Sharjah Cricket Council will be staging this grand cricket tournament called the Academies Premier League (APL) for all the top cricket academies in the UAE at this venue which has hosted the maximum number of One Day Internationals in world cricket. Cricketers under the age of 16 and 19 will be playing on the same wicket on which gre...

  By K.R. Nayar Yorker is the most talked about delivery today, especially in limited-over cricket. The term yorker can be traced to the 18 th  century and it is said that it originated from Yorkshire. However, today it has become one of the toughest deliveries to tackle and is being used by some of the best bowlers to beat batsmen. Yorker deliveries have become the most powerful weapon for bowlers ever since there has been an increase in the number of limited-over matches. Bowlers with the capability to bowl accurate yorkers are most wanted by teams. Fast bowlers now aim to master the art of bowling yorkers along with other techniques. Even spinners are working hard to get this into their armoury. For a long time, fast bowlers used bouncers as their powerful weapon. But ever since batsmen started wearing helmets the fear for bouncers faded away, and today it is the yorker that most batsmen worry about.  Given that a  yorker is a full-length delivery that is pitch...

By K.R. Nayar If our mind is always tuned to positive thinking and success, we can surely achieve what we aim for in life.  It is important to have control over our minds and streamline it to focus on our goals. Only a strong mind can break all barriers. It’s all in the mind. Whether we want to do something or nothing at all, it all depends on our minds. It’s our mind that can stop us from doing something that we want to do and also tempt us to do what we should not be doing. We've often heard people say - if you don’t control your mind then your mind will control you. To gain control over our mind is no easy feat.  I have heard many thinkers remark that our mind is like a monkey that jumps from one thought to another just like how monkeys jump from one branch/tree to another.  When we have no control over our minds, we are barely aware of how we've jumped from one thought to another. It is the mind that moves us away from our goal. It ...

By K.R. Nayar Following an investigation conducted by England on why the Chepauk pitch suddenly turned unplayable for them, it was found that Ravichandran Ashwin’s knowledge of every stone at Chepauk played a huge role. The Chennai crowd that can teach even the world’s best batsman or bowler how they should play, seemed to have used the Tamil language to guide Ashwin to score more runs than even Virat Kohli! Investigations revealed that the powder coming out from the pitch has been traced back to Sambar and Idli podi!     After England lost to India in the second Test at Chepauk, an investigation was conducted following criticisms about the pitch on which England struggled but India batted comfortably. Since the International Cricket Council (ICC) did not seem keen on an investigation despite the hue and cry from some former England cricketers, the England team management decided to approach an expert. In fact, he is not only a pitch expert but an expert on everything t...

 By K.R. Nayar I fell in love with cricket from a very young age. I soon realised how beautiful my world has turned to be by being with it. Like a passionate lover, I adored the game spending days and months at stadiums.   Over the years I wrote about the game travelling to different parts of the world. I’ve been in a life-long relationship with the game and I believe that Valentine’s day is the best day to celebrate my romance with cricket Every Valentine’s day, I celebrate my romance with cricket. I started playing cricket from a very young age but did not realise then that one can actually fall in love with the game and have a life-long relationship with it.   That was the time when I was just finishing school. It is often said that love that happens during school or college days are not long-lasting. But for me it was different. The more I played the game, my love and attachment for it only grew stronger by the day. Then I joined Kerala Cricket Association’s effor...

By K.R. Nayar Robin Singh, who is the UAE’s Director of Cricket, was the batting coach for Mumbai Indians who lifted the Indian Premier League title and was also the Head Coach of Northern Warriors who emerged champions of the Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament this season. Through an exclusive interview, he narrated his plans of transforming the UAE squad into a formidable one in all formats of the game, and what would be needed from the UAE cricketers to turn into champions. Robin Singh makes his point. Photo by K.R. Nayar Robin Singh carries with him years of experience not only as an Indian team all-rounder but also as a coach who can transform teams under his guidance into champions.  This season, Singh, as the batting coach, guided Mumbai Indians to the Indian Premier League title, and as a Head Coach ensured that Northern Warriors win the Abu Dhabi T10 for a second time. He was also the fielding coach of the Indian team and has also coached Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean...

By K.R. Nayar  Junaid Siddique worked in a grocery store and on a farm to earn a living in the UAE. Playing with shoes gifted by his friends, he performed consistently and went to play international cricket for the UAE. In the recent Alubond Abu Dhabi T10, he finished as the third-highest wicket-taker, which included the wickets of legendary Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard Junaid Siddique UAE’s medium pacer Junaid Siddique, who repeatedly won matches for Northern Warriors in the just concluded Alubond Abu Dhabi T10, is an example of how a cricketer despite facing the toughest of challenges can go on to win applause from legends of the game. Junaid, as he is addressed by all, got some of the best batsmen in the world who played in the Abu Dhabi T10 to struggle through his accurate bowling that had a lot of variations. His dismissals included the finest limited over cricket legends like Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. Junaid's journey to such an honour is a soul-stirring tale...

  By K.R. Nayar From bravely staging the fourth edition of the Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament amidst threats from Covid-19 by protecting the players and officials, to acts of bravery and determination from little-known players, the event stood out as an example to be followed by people facing challenges almost on a daily basis. The fourth edition of the Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament that concluded on Saturday was an event where the importance of bravery and determination was highlighted as the pathway to success. In today’s world where people have been crashing before the mounting pressures and challenges of daily life, a look at what happened in this tournament can be an eye opener. Bravely deciding to stage this tournament in the face of threats from Covid-19 and making sure all precautions were in place for the safety of all players and support staff was the first step. One also needs to commend the bravery shown by all cricketers, including the legendary stars and ...

  By K.R. Nayar The T10 format is not just a mere fast-paced cricket format. A close study will reveal that there are many life lessons to be learned from this format to be successful not only in cricket but in all other sports as well as in one’s personal and professional life Wayne Parnell who proved through a hat-trick that bowlers are not paid to be hit The ongoing Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 is one of the many franchise-based cricket leagues being held around the world. However, there are a number of lessons that can be learned from this that we could adopt not only in other sports but in our daily lives as well. While the fastest cricket format with its ten overs makes it stand out from the rest, there are ten life lessons that we could take away as well from this format. The first lesson that this format teaches us is to think on our feet quickly, faster than any other format. In this fast-paced modern world that demands quick responses and reactions from everyone in lif...

 By K.R. Nayar  Through sterling performances in the ongoing Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament, UAE cricketers have announced that they deserve to be considered to play in the reputed franchise-based leagues around the world like the Indian Premier League, Big Bash, and the Pakistan Super League Waseem Muhammad  Ever since franchise cricket was introduced, teams never considered talented players in the UAE worthy to be playing in the reputed leagues worldwide. The only instance was when Chirag Suri was picked by Gujarat Lions for the 2017 IPL edition. Although he was selected into the team, he did not get to play any matches. However, the ongoing Alubond Abu Dhabi T10 tournament has shown that many UAE cricketers are worthy of playing in the different franchised-based leagues around the world. Starting from Suri to Waseem Muhammad, Abdul Shakoor, Zahoor Khan, Sultan Ahmed, Shiraz Ahmed, and even18-year-old Alishan Sharafu, they have proved their worth.  They have b...