Cricket World Cup countdown: UAE vs Afghanistan ODI series starts Friday

UAE's cricket coach Aaqib Javed is hoping the series of four one-day internationals against Afghanistan starting this week in Dubai will help prepare his team for next year's World Cup.

The February-March World Cup will be UAE's second after they featured in the 1996 event held in the subcontinent while for Afghanistan it will be their maiden appearance in a 50-over tournament.

Javed, a former Pakistan paceman, said he would have liked his team to compete against a full Test playing nation.

"Look, it would have been ideal had we got a few matches against a top team but all of them are busy so even playing against a one-day status team will give us good preparation," Javed told AFP.

The four one-day matches will be played on November 28, 30, December 2 and 4 - all at the International Cricket Council (ICC) academy in Dubai.

The academy grounds at Dubai Sports City include pitches that have been made with soil imported from Western Australia and Queensland, where UAE and Afghanistan will play some of their matches.

UAE is placed in World Cup Group B alongside defending champions India, Pakistan, the West Indies, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Afghanistan are in Group A with Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England, Scotland and Bangladesh.

Javed said his team can still get to play top teams under an ICC High Performance Programme likely to be held in Januray next year.

"The ICC is planning a few matches against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and may be Pakistan come here for parctice ahead of the World Cup so we can have a few tough matches as well but this is yet to be finalised," said Javed, UAE coach since March 2012.

Javed played 22 Tests and 163 one-day internationals for Pakistan and was also a coach at Pakistan's national cricket academy in Lahore.

David East, Emirates Cricket Board CEO said: “We are proud for these teams to have the opportunity to prepare and play on the ICC Academy’s world-class facilities and surfaces, knowing it will provide all cricket-lovers with thrilling, competitive games both during training and at the Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.”

“This ODI series is an incredibly important part of our preparations. Our recent warm-up games against high-quality Pakistan A and New Zealand A provided us with valuable information on what our coaching, and sports science teams need to focus on and fine-tune as we move into the final stages of UAE’s training programme. Against Afghanistan we will be on a more level playing field, so we expect to see vast improvements from the UAE players and the team as a whole,” said Will Kitchen, General Manager, ICC Academy and UAE Cricket High Performance Manager.

“We are very pleased with the commitment, and progress shown by the UAE players not only from the recent three-week intense training camp, but how they approached and played against much higher ranked teams in Pakistan A and New Zealand A.”

Schedule:

Friday Nov 28 day/night  2pm ICC Academy
Sunday Nov 30 day 10am ICC Academy
Tuesday Dec 2 Day  10am ICC Academy
Thursday Dec 4 Day/Night 2pm ICC Academy



 

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