India vs England Champions Trophy final has UAE cricket fans on half-day sweat

It is work versus play for cricket fans in the UAE this afternoon, as England take on India in the Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston in UK.

While countrymen from both sides will be rooting for their home teams, ardent fans are caught between leaving home early and finishing office work on the first day of the week.

While some are hoping their favorite team bats second, so that they can return home in time to watch the second innings, others have found illegal online streaming services that broadcast the match ‘live’. Only a few - mostly sales staff - told Emirates 24|7 that they would actually leave home early from work to watch the full match.

“I have a meeting in Sharjah this morning, after which I have informed office about two other meetings, but I will be heading home early for the match,” says Santosh J, sales executive in Dubai.

Vivek on the other hand says he can only leave office by 5pm. “I hope India bats second. Not only can the chase down any score and thereby win the match, I will get a chance to see them bat as well.”

Many other like Vivek are counting on multiple free online live stream of the cricket match to keep tabs on the ‘live’ action.

“There are not one but six different streams available. When one becomes slow, you can always log on to the other stream,” says John, who has watched most of the Champions Trophy from his office.

A few others say they are shocked that people are still so crazy of cricket despite all the match fixing allegations. “The fans are a crazy lot. I still cannot believe that people are crazy of watching cricket after all what we have heard about match fixing. It is a waste of time and I stopped watching cricket long ago. There are better things to do in life,” says Shibu James.

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