Khurram Khan captained the UAE team © Getty Images
Khurram Khan captained the UAE team © Getty Images

United Arab Emirates (UAE) head coach Aaqib Javed praised the new selection committee highly saying the young minds of former players Khurram Khan and Mohammad Tauqir will add some fresh ideas. Former UAE skippers Khurram and Tauqir have been recently included in the selection committee of Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and will be seen in action alongside Zayed Abbas and Waleed Bukhatir. In an interview given to sport360.com, Javed said, “They are all young guys with new ideas. They all are sports fans and that’s very encouraging. Waleed and Zayed bring a lot of experience and I feel with the addition of Khurram and Tauqir, who were the two best options (in the interview stage), and both being  captains, they have good knowledge of the game. So it’s a good decision by the board.” READ: ICC Awards 2015: Khurram Khan gets Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year

Both the players have together played more than 15o matches. They have a lot of experience and the fact that they recently retired will count in favour of UAE cricket, the coach opined.

“There are several things that we want to do and are really confident that Khurram and Tauqir will bring something new to this selection process. They know UAE cricket inside out. They recently retired and know who the players are and who are the up and coming talent, so it’s all good. This is the same for any professional national team around the world. You will find three or four cricketers on a panel and they all understand the game so this is the first step moving forward.”

Javed mentioned about a talent hunt programme to bring up talents from grassroot level and nurture them to world-class players.

“Nowadays, if you want to play in the UAE national team, you would have had to have play in a ‘A’ Division tournament otherwise it’s really difficult to get into the UAE team. It’s not ideal if you are living in remote areas of the country or playing in a ‘B’ or ‘C’ division side. There are plans to roll out the programme across the emirate and if there is talent, then we want to train them and develop them. We don’t want to waste any talent and want this to create a pathway to the national side,” Javed stated.

Many first class players from India and Pakistan have moved to UAE willing to play for th national side. Talking about that, the coach said, “I would think after one year, the UAE will improve considerably because there are some very talented players  who have played first-class cricket in India and Pakistan. They are close to meeting the qualification criteria and then they can play for the UAE so it’s very encouraging for the future. If we can be patient this year and work hard the UAE will make big progress. It’s a crucial time but we are definitely going in the right direction.”