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.
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| 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 Premier League.
As
UAE's Director of Cricket, Singh has charted a direction for the game in this
country. Speaking exclusively to krbuzz.blogspot.com he explained in depth his
plans for the UAE teams, including the junior team, men’s senior team, and
women’s cricket.
Need to have quality cricket
“Last
year, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) hosted two new domestic tournaments -
the Emirates D10 and D20. Both tournaments saw a total of 67 matches played
among the top four club teams in the UAE and two teams put together by the ECB.
All games were streamed live and played at the Dubai International Stadium.
These top-tier domestic games form an integral part of improving the quality of
cricket in the UAE.”
“When
I took on the role of Director of Cricket with the ECB, there was already a lot
of cricket happening here but most of it as unstructured cricket. We have been
working to put a domestic system in place with more competitive tournaments to
ensure that we have more quality cricket to identify quality players. We have
grown the pool of cricketers to more than 40, not just 15, like in the past. We
need to consistently keep upgrading their skills so that we have a strong bench
of cricketers who can play for the UAE team at any time. Last year's D10 and
D20 tournaments gave us a good start to competitive domestic tournaments and we
found many new youngsters to be a part of our national setup. This pathway is
critical to the success of our national team, and hence we need to keep
improving on the domestic system so that more players would want to play for
UAE."
Create a culture wanting to represent
the UAE
“During
last year’s IPL, UAE skipper Ahmed Raza and teammate Karthik Meiyappan trained
with the Royal Challengers Bangalore while UAE seamer, Zahoor Kham, trained
with the Mumbai Indians. The Emirates D20 tournament followed only weeks later
and wrapped up just a couple of weeks before the UAE took on Ireland in two
50-over matches in January.”
Singh noted that when local UAE players
see that it’s possible to have good domestic cricket in the UAE along with
opportunities to ply their trade alongside international cricketers, they can
create a culture of wanting to represent the UAE.
“Most
people come here thinking they will not be able to play for the UAE, and if
they are good enough they think of going to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri
Lanka. Our aim is to inculcate a culture where they build pride for UAE
as their country and that they want to play for this country from the time they
arrive here. We need to show them everything is possible here and that starts with
a strong domestic system and pathways with additional opportunities to take
their cricket to the next level in franchise tournaments around the world. The
recently announced UAE T20 tournament would be an even bigger boost for UAE
Cricket and would help our next generation of cricketers to become as
competitive as any other international player.”
Agenda for Women’s cricket
Women’s Cricket is just as high on the
agenda for Singh as men’s cricket. While their challenges are a bit different
compared to men, the goals are the same.
“For
most women cricketers, their regular job is top priority and they need to be
able to sustain themselves in this environment. This is not a cheap place to
live, and hence having a job becomes critical for anyone. Many women want to
play, but some are struggling to balance the demands of playing with their
jobs. Ultimately, in the very near future we have to be able to support the
women financially with contracts as we do for the men and we are working on
those plans right now. Just like the men, we want to make playing for the UAE
possible for the women as well.”
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| Robin Singh, batting coach of IPL winners Mumbai Indians |
An open-door policy to play for the UAE
Under Singh’s direction, UAE Cricket
has started to see more youth players, and players who were overlooked, getting
involved in the national training program. He believes that the constant
injection of new talent into the programme would help maintain the high level
of competition needed to improve the team.
“We
will follow an open-door policy to give players an equal opportunity to try out
for the UAE and remove any complacency among senior players. Everyone has to
earn the right to be there and that is very important. I would not want any
senior or junior player to take their place for granted. No one should feel
that they are an automatic selection. Every selected player would have to meet
the same selection criteria. That means our system must be set in place to spot
talent in local cricket and especially the talent between the ages of 13 and
19. We are creating structured programmes to help them upgrade their skills,
improve their fitness levels, and play organized cricket that is monitored by
UAE Cricket. Players would know where they stand among their peers, can measure
their success and see the benefits going forward. Our measure of success would
be quality under-16, under-19 and senior teams we produce to represent the UAE
as well as the players who can get into franchise teams across the globe. These
goals are the same for men and women."
Create healthy competition through A
teams
Competition is always key to
improvement and at UAE Cricket, it is no different. With an expanded player
pool of over 40 players, Singh now has the depth to create a UAE ‘A’ team.
“In
any system, it is important that top-level cricket is played in the country
regularly. I really want to focus on having an 'A' team to create a second
layer and have that second layer push the senior team to go forward. They will
play many more matches against each other to create healthy competition at the
top. The 'A' team will act as our feeder to the senior team and as a bridge for
our under-19 teams to get to the senior team. Already, we have played many
matches among the players within our national pool. I’ve been told that our
national team is used to training indoors rather than outdoors. But since last
summer, we made the switch to have them play more outdoor matches. We have
world-class facilities here in UAE and we need to use them to our advantage to
fast-track players. At the ICC Academy for example, there are different types
of wickets from across the globe and we have been fortunate to be able to use
those facilities to help the guys adjust better to playing on natural turf wickets
as opposed to playing only on Astro or concrete wickets. Hopefully, we are able
to replicate that in more places in the UAE over some time."
The need to play more 50-over cricket
As the UAE has begun to re-open last
summer since the pandemic, UAE Cricket was one of the first national cricket
teams to resume training under the guidance of government Covid protocols. Having
understood the benefit of 4-day cricket during his time playing state cricket
in India, Singh knew that if UAE Cricket aims to become a better side, they will
need to play more of the longer format. In 2020 they did just that - played
more 50-over games among themselves in the national squad than they had played
domestically in the past two years. Singh’s philosophy is that UAE teams should
shift their mindset of wanting to just compete and instead have the sincere
belief that they are playing to win. This belief has already started to take
root as this past January, UAE pulled off a stunning win against Ireland in the
50-over ODI series.
“What
I would like to see is that everyone goes out there to win and not just
compete. If we are to achieve our goal of becoming a full member, we need to
play a lot more 50-over cricket. I’ve been told by many of the players that the
number of domestic 50 over matches we played last summer was more than they had
played in previous years. Ultimately, we want to introduce a two-day
competition where people can play 90-over cricket or two innings cricket. We
want the guys to focus more on building their temperament and not just playing
T20 cricket. What is needed to excel in cricket and survive battles is good
temperament. I would like players to add more value to their wicket. On the
bowling side, I can see where we can gain advantage if we ensure our bowling
department is top quality. In any country whether associate or full member, the
best batters struggle against good bowling and we saw guys like Junaid Siddique
do exceptionally well in the T10. Once that temperament gets into players, the
playing standard will automatically go up. Then you will find players getting
many more hundreds and bowlers looking at getting more wickets and producing
more five-wicket hauls.”
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| Robin Singh coached the triumphant Northern Warriors |
Aim to qualify for the World Cup
The belief of the UAE team is going to
be key to get them to the World Cup. With their first win against Ireland
without their two opening batters who pulled out due to positive Covid tests on
the morning of the first match, their confidence is already riding high for
this 2023 World Cup campaign. Backed by Singh’s philosophy, UAE will not only
be looking to qualify for the World Cup but also to create some tournament
upsets.
“Plans
are being put in place to have Under-16 and Under-19 camps for two or three
months during this summer to ensure we’re building our pipeline. There will
also be a structured preparation for the Under-19 teams and senior men and
women’s teams going for World Cup qualifiers this year. Right now we have D10
and D20, and very soon a D50 tournament too will happen. Going forward, we will
then look at playing two-day cricket. People must get into the mindset of
playing a lot more 50-over cricket in between the T 20 and two-day cricket to
build the sort of temperament needed to qualify for the World Cup and make a mark
on the international stage.”
Fitness levels are of the highest
standards
“One
of UAE Cricket’s main priorities for players is to get them fit. In the recent
50-over series against Ireland, there were marked differences among players’
fitness levels. We must ensure players' fitness levels are right up there with
the highest standards. We are making sure their training is effective and the
quality of cricket they play is high. It is not about playing too much cricket
but address how much cricket they need to play. Although cricketers here spend
at least 10 months of a year playing cricket, the way they play the game is
important. They need to spend quality time and this is why we are addressing
this through structured tournaments and customized fitness programmes. The more
we can control the environment, the greater the benefits players will receive.
Hence, from now onwards, we will identify players' needs, their problems and
issues, and the programmes they need to sharpen their abilities as players. We
can then set benchmarks and keep revisiting those benchmarks as they achieve
those targets.”
Bigger pool for World Cup qualifiers
Asked whether the squad for the World
Cup qualifiers has been identified, Singh has a core group of players among its
expanded pool but has not ruled out adding more players.
“As
of now, we have more-or-less identified the squad for the World Cup
qualifiers...but there are more players who will become eligible to represent the
UAE going forward and we will consider them. The bigger our players’ pool, the
better for all of us. We have some real quality talent in the UAE and Waseem
Muhammad is an example of a player who can qualify to play for the UAE in the
next few months. We plan to expand our scouting network to keep us up-to-date
on the talent and feed our head office with information about players who are
doing well. As I said before, it is important to have an open-door policy to
look at everyone and not dismiss anyone whether it’s for men, women or youth.”
Aim to identify and fill the gaps
As a highly decorated coach, Singh
brings a background, rich with indisputable knowledge and experience to his
dual roles of UAE’s Director of Cricket and Head Coach of the men’s national
team.
“It
is a great advantage coming into this Director’s role with a strong coaching
background. I can easily identify and fill the gaps between what happens at the
team level and at the organization level. I can translate the team and players’
needs into issues that can be better understood at the organization level and
vice versa.”.
UAE needs role models
Waseem Muhammad, Junaid Siddique, Rohan
Mustafa, and Chirag Suri lit up the T10 stage with outstanding performances,
including Waseem matching Chris Gayle’s 12-ball half century. The significance
of these performances cannot not be understated, believes Singh.
“We
need role models in UAE Cricket and need to start creating and promoting them.
Without role models, whom will the under 19s and other youth players look up
to? To support our goal of inculcating a culture of wanting to play for the UAE,
we have to steer our youth players from looking only outside for role models.
The recent success of our players on the international stage, whether it was in
T10 or against Ireland, has brought more self-belief among the youngsters.
Aside from that, Under-19 cricketers in the UAE need to play a lot more
competitive cricket, better competition, and not play among themselves alone.
Hence we will work to get more teams coming into the country or they going on
tours.”
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