Ahead of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, Paul Radley details the travel hurdles faced by teams in the trans-Tasman tournament being staged in Australia and New Zealand.
It is a good thing the UAE have always had a variety of airline flight staff at the core of their team.
Experienced flyers will be a valuable commodity at a World Cup that involves an extraordinary amount of air travel.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is doing its bit to keep Australasia’s airlines in business over the next two weeks.
Anyone wanting follow their team would be advised to pack some flight socks, a couple of tubes of Pringles and a copy of War and Peace on Kindle because there is going to be plenty of time to kill in departure lounges across Australia and New Zealand.
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Only three teams – India, Afghanistan and Scotland – play consecutive fixtures at the same venue. They still pack in the miles on the rest of their trip, though.
Afghanistan travel more than anyone, nearly 15,000 kilometres between their six scheduled group venues.
Even the hosts are not spared. Well, New Zealand are, by dint of the size of their country – as well as the fact they welcome the other co-hosts, Australia, to Auckland for their pool fixture on February 28. But all of Australia’s five journeys, by contrast, exceed 1,050km.
Back in 1996, the last time the UAE played at a World Cup, all travel was within Pakistan.
The national team journeyed 778km between the five cities at which they played.
In the most recent subcontinental World Cup, on their way to winning the title, India’s group matches took in trips that covered a total of 6,099km.
Such a heavy schedule will be old hat for many of the UAE players with the vice captain, Khurram Khan, most likely to find it a breeze.
His day job is with Emirates Airline cabin crew and Khurram regularly jets in ahead of UAE matches from distant destinations.
When he set the world record as the oldest one-day centurion, against Afghanistan in Dubai in December, he had been in San Francisco the day before the series started.
There are two others Emirates Airline employees in the squad, Amjad Javed and Krishnachandran Karate, although both are based on the ground as part of the cargo department.
Aaqib Javed, the UAE team’s coach, is unconcerned by the excesses of the flight plan, reasoning that the players are conditioned to busy schedules as part of everyday life.
“I think they will be in control,” said Aaqib, who is attending his eighth World Cup as a player or coach so is well used to living out of a suitcase.
“If you go through their daily routines, it is much tougher than the World Cup schedule. They will be relaxed. I am not worried about that.”
Thankfully, the UAE players now have an extended back-room staff to assist them with more than just throw-downs at nets, or feeding the bowling machine.
Qualifying for the World Cup unlocked a significant sum of ICC high-performance funding, meaning they have been able to employ a variety of specialist staff.
Peter Kelly, a Dubai-based rugby player from New Zealand, will be tasked with monitoring the conditioning of the players throughout the tournament.
Mohammed Tauqir, the team captain, said this remit would extend to the time away from the playing field, as well.
“There is a lot of travelling, which is a new thing for us to adapt to,” Tauqir said.
“We are lucky to have Peter Kelly with us. On the flights he will be telling us to keep drinking water to make sure we stay hydrated and don’t get cramp.
“There may be a lot of travel, but in between there are a lot of off days, also.
“Let’s see how we cope with it. It is part and parcel of international cricket.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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if you go
The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.
The trip
Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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