Pakistan and UAE will meet at the eastern most cricket ground in the World Cup on Wednesday.
It seems bizarre that two sides who are so intrinsically linked have to go the end of the Earth to play a competitive fixture against each other.
Both call Sharjah Cricket Stadium home. So deep are the ties, it is probably fair to say one could not exist without the other.
Nine of the 15-man UAE squad at the World Cup are Pakistani nationals. The head coach, Aaqib Javed, and the batting coach, Mudassar Nazar, are ex-Pakistan internationals of great repute.
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Pakistan, for their part, have been able to live in exile in the UAE, where they have been granted mate’s rates on the country’s high-class cricket facilities for years.
Their national team has only has been able to survive - and often thrive - as an international entity because of it.
Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, acknowledged as much in the eve of match press conference.
“It is really important for us because whatever we did in the last four years, I think UAE played a wider role in Pakistan’s cricket,” Misbah said.
“We just achieved so many things there, the whitewash over England and whitewash over Australia in Test matches there.
“We won against Sri Lanka, also. We played most of our cricket in UAE, so you could say that’s home for us.
“Whatever we are achieving, whatever we did in the last four years, that’s due to UAE.”
Misbah says his side know their opposition well, too, and have plans for them as a result.
Not that the UAE are strangers to their celebrated tenants, though.
The national team played a two-day tour match against the full Pakistan Test side ahead of their series against South Africa.
A Pakistan A side, which included a number of players in the World Cup squad, also beat the UAE 3-2 in a warm up series for this event at the end of 2014.
Furthermore, Pakistani players - such as Nasir Jamshed and Umar Akmal from the World Cup squad - have often been hired by company sides to play domestic A division cricket in the UAE.
Amjad Javed, the bowler who has been one of the stand out players for the UAE so far in this competition, remembers hitting Mohammed Irfan, the towering quick bowler, for sixes at Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi around seven years ago.
He says the opposition hold no mysteries for his batting colleagues.
“They are not scared,” Javed said. “They are well prepared, and still they are preparing.
“Our batting coach Mudassar is working very hard on them, so Inshallah, we’ll do well.
“We are representing as the UAE, so it doesn’t matter if you are Pakistani playing against Pakistan.
“We will play as UAE, so we will give 100 per cent against them.”
pradley@thenational.ae
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
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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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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
