DUBAI // Organisers of the first Gulf Cup of cricket solely for Arab nationals hope to spark a new era of Emirati participation in the sport.
The UAE will vie with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait for bragging rights in the Twenty20 competition, which begins on Saturday in Dubal.
The timing of the competition is ironic. While a side exclusively made up of Emiratis represent the country for the first time, the official UAE team, who include only two Emiratis, will compete simultaneously for the ACC Twenty20 Trophy.
All four Gulf Cup teams also have representatives in the ACC competition, made up mainly by subcontinental expatriate players.
"Our mission is to get more UAE nationals playing the game," said Alawi Shukri, the tournament director who is the only Emirati playing in the Gulf Cup to have represented the full national side.
"This tournament is a great adventure, but it is not the solution. Our goal is to see cricket all over the UAE."
Mushtaq Mohammed, the former Pakistan and UAE coach, endorsed the ambitions of Emirati cricketers.
"I had players given to me to be trained for a purpose: the ACC Trophy or a World Cup qualification tournament for instance," he said. "Back then the participation of nationals was few and far between, but my captain was Saeed al Saffar, a very talented local player.
"If we dig deep enough I believe we can find many more Saeed al Saffars today. I am sure there are a lot more out there.
"It will require time. The awareness of cricket has to come from the grassroots level. If a boy has a cricket bat in his hands at eight-years-old, it will take 10 or 15 years to turn him into a cricketer.
"This tournament is like an opening ceremony for those ideas."
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Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta)
Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli)
Best Team: Atalanta
Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)
Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia)
Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus)
Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan)
Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
