Junaid Siddique hails from Multan in Pakistan, and came to the UAE in 2014. But it wasn’t until a corruption scandal in UAE cricket, which led to bans of several players, that Siddique got a chance to play for the national team in October 2019. Over the past six years, Siddique has slowly emerged to becoming the leader of UAE’s pace attack.
Two nights after starring with a four-wicket haul in UAE’s win over Oman, Siddique raised thoughts of an upset of Pakistan. He dismissed openers Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan in his first two overs, before returning later in the innings to polish off the lower order, ending with figures of 4-0-18-4.
At the other end, Simranjeet Singh, who hails from Ludhiana in India, stemmed the flow of runs and built up pressure through the middle overs. Among his victims was Fakhar Zaman, soon after he got to a half-century.
From bowling to a young Shubman Gill at the Punjab age-group nets, Simranjeet’s cricket journey took an unexpected twist when he got stuck in the UAE during the Covid-19 lockdown. It was to start an unusual but memorable journey that has now taken him to the UAE team at 35. On Wednesday, he returned figures of 3 for 26.
In a hugely volatile situation involving India and Pakistan, Siddique and Simranjeet are examples of players who have not let geopolitical tensions come in the way of their cricket, and performing together for UAE.
Despite improved focus towards developing home-grown talent, UAE are very much a multicultural group of players, largely from the subcontinent. Their captain Muhammad Waseem, born in Pakistan, is himself a beneficiary of support from a Hyderabad-based entrepreneur who helped him land a job and helped facilitate his cricketing journey when he arrived in Dubai more than a decade ago.
It was, therefore, only natural that Waseem expressed the kind of sentiment he did when asked about the tensions between India and Pakistan during the Asia Cup.
“All these situations are only in India and Pakistan. There are no such situations in the UAE, whether it is in daily life, whether it is in cricket, or in our friendship,” he said. “We live like a family away from cricket, and in cricket matches too. We have played a lot of cricket with each other.”
Asked if it ever came in the way of their camaraderie, he said, “No, we weren’t talking of that [politics]. We’ve played too much cricket with each other. There’s no Indian or Pakistani [sentiment]. We are playing for the UAE. We play as a family, and live as a family.”
